Mason Cooley

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

— Mason Cooley

The beginning, middle, and end are parodied, reversed, and hidden by modernism, but not abandoned.

— Mason Cooley

In New York, one must collapse to be indolent.

— Mason Cooley

Without asceticism, self-indulgence would be insignificant.

— Mason Cooley

Fortuna likes to find a crowd and follow it.

— Mason Cooley

Oblivion waits without beckoning or threatening.

— Mason Cooley

No one could be the way I remember my father

— Mason Cooley

Skepticism does not preserve us from foolhardy deeds.

— Mason Cooley

Great talkers are trying to fill the gap between themselves and others, but only widen it.

— Mason Cooley

Austerity causes constipation; excess, diarrhea.

— Mason Cooley

Even a cow creates ambiguous signifiers. The moo of mystery.

— Mason Cooley

Good books do not make people wiser or happier--only more conscious.

— Mason Cooley

Failures are easier to repeat than successes.

— Mason Cooley

Perversity depends on reversal and substitution.

— Mason Cooley

Jealousy fuses megalomania and self-abandonment.

— Mason Cooley

As I review my life, I feel I must have missed the point, either then or now.

— Mason Cooley

To gain a reputation for virtue, grieve over those you injure.

— Mason Cooley

Magic trick: to make people disappear, ask them to fulfill their promises.

— Mason Cooley

Lies and promises are necessary but not sufficient.

— Mason Cooley

Vanity well fed is benevolent. Vanity hungry is spiteful.

— Mason Cooley

If there is no harm in asking, why guilt and fear when we do so?

— Mason Cooley

If you should ever acknowledge my existence, I plan to snub you.

— Mason Cooley

We may eat dinner together, but everyone puts the food in his own mouth.

— Mason Cooley

Don't stare into a mirror when you are trying to solve a problem.

— Mason Cooley

Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

— Mason Cooley