Mason Cooley

Modernism: the books are as hard to understand as life itself.

— Mason Cooley

Whether I give to a beggar or not, his existence puts me in the wrong.

— Mason Cooley

The novel avoids the sublime and seeks out the interesting.

— Mason Cooley

As children, our protests availed little. As adults, the same.

— Mason Cooley

Rhyme and meter force gaps in meaning so the muse can enter.

— Mason Cooley

Eccentricity is originality that leads nowhere.

— Mason Cooley

I am no longer in love, but I still have my jealousy.

— Mason Cooley

With age, I have become both more pious and more shameless.

— Mason Cooley

Children consider disliking their parents natural, but if the dislike is returned, they are outraged.

— Mason Cooley

Looking backward at what has been lost, I feel sad, then indifferent, and at last relieved.

— Mason Cooley

Weakness is a better teacher than strength. Weakness must learn to understand the obstacles that strength brushes aside.

— Mason Cooley

Seek and Hide: the Lover gazes at the Beloved. The Beloved looks away. The Beloved turns and looks at the Lover. The…

— Mason Cooley

Perhaps fortunately, no one has ever found out what it would be like to have all his wishes fulfilled.

— Mason Cooley

An academic dialect is perfected when its terms are hard to understand and refer only to one another.

— Mason Cooley

Every time I change the way I explain myself to myself, I have to rearrange the story of my life.

— Mason Cooley

Since events are not metaphors, the literal-minded have a certain advantage in dealing with them.

— Mason Cooley

Every few years something new breaks into the circle of my thoughts.

— Mason Cooley

If modesty disappeared, so would exhibitionism.

— Mason Cooley

Self-pity dries up our sympathy for others.

— Mason Cooley

Many count on their disadvantages to cover for them.

— Mason Cooley

You are so tactful that I have no idea what you want.

— Mason Cooley

Beggars beg to get money, not to reproach the passerby.

— Mason Cooley

Aphorisms are not true or false, but pointed or flat.

— Mason Cooley

Self-blame usually has an undertone of self-congratulation.

— Mason Cooley

Explanations comfort us by giving the impression that there is an order in things.

— Mason Cooley

Some subjects come up suddenly in our speech and cannot be silenced.

— Mason Cooley

The horse stares at its captor, barely remembering the free kicks of youth.

— Mason Cooley

Events are called inevitable only after they have occurred.

— Mason Cooley

Masks are what they seem to be; not so the faces beneath them.

— Mason Cooley

Children now expect their parents to audition for approval.

— Mason Cooley

Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.

— Mason Cooley

Jargon is part ceremonial robe, part false beard.

— Mason Cooley

The modest youth somehow knows just what to do for the cameras.

— Mason Cooley

Narcissus weeps to find that his Image does not return his love.

— Mason Cooley

“After desolation, grief brings back our humanity”

— Mason Cooley

Worry is not thought; complaining is not action.

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

Why do we never expect dull people to be rascals?

— Mason Cooley

In the present age, a man with harmonious ideas is regarded as out of touch.

— Mason Cooley

Boredom strives to detach, but finds itself stuck.

— Mason Cooley