Mason Cooley

Human nature is a scoundrel's favorite explanation.

— Mason Cooley

Metaphors convince at once or not at all.

— Mason Cooley

Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.

— Mason Cooley

Often, when I want to consult my impulses, I cannot find them.

— Mason Cooley

I read less and less. I have not forgiven books for their failure to tell me the truth and make me happy.

— Mason Cooley

Talent shuffles the deck. Genius brings a new deck.

— Mason Cooley

Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness.

— Mason Cooley

Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one's behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.

— Mason Cooley

Death promises nothing--not even oblivion.

— Mason Cooley

Somehow the body keeps life going despite the ravaging negations of the mind.

— Mason Cooley

Smiling half-reluctance seems to promise more than the frankest gesture of desire.

— Mason Cooley

I obey my own commands about as often as others do.

— Mason Cooley

Children would die of terror if they knew the folly and ignorance of their caretakers.

— Mason Cooley

The madness of love can always be suspended--to cook dinner or catch a plane, for instance.

— Mason Cooley

Art chooses its constraints.

— Mason Cooley

Healthy vanity sweeps through life. Sickly vanity lies in bed.

— Mason Cooley

A fastidious taste is best indoors, away from nature and the city.

— Mason Cooley

Reason enables us to get around in the world of ideas, but cannot prescribe our thoughts.

— Mason Cooley

Simplicity is a strict taskmaster.

— Mason Cooley

Boredom is the only sure cure for neurosis.

— Mason Cooley

The suburbs: signs of life, but no proofs.

— Mason Cooley

Sexual attraction makes the strangest bedfellows of all.

— Mason Cooley

Sorrow also fulfills Desire. Example: the Soaps.

— Mason Cooley

Everyone makes sexy sounds; relatively few, sexy sights.

— Mason Cooley

The nature of language may determine what most people say, but I always speak my own meaning.

— Mason Cooley