Mason Cooley

Consciousness is our only reprieve from Time.

— Mason Cooley

Undecidability is a useful category even in dealing with restaurant menus.

— Mason Cooley

I like what I do for a living. I also like NOT doing it--perhaps even more.

— Mason Cooley

Thrift is an attractive idea until you get down to specifics.

— Mason Cooley

Faith no doubt moves mountains, but not necessarily to where we want them.

— Mason Cooley

Saying "I love you" makes a demand, but creates no obligations.

— Mason Cooley

Men and women would be even more unhappy if they really understood one another.

— Mason Cooley

Some live in a state of passionate indecision.

— Mason Cooley

Machismo makes no provision for preparing lunch, doing the laundry, or minding the baby.

— Mason Cooley

I criticize myself ruthlessly, but never mention the faults of which I am truly ashamed.

— Mason Cooley

I seldom remember my father, but I sneeze and rub my nose the way he did. I also love my son with…

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

Between repetition and forgetting, it is a marvel that a new thought ever struggles into existence.

— Mason Cooley

If you call failures experiments, you can put them in your resume and claim them as achievements.

— Mason Cooley

Finding a thought for an aphorism is not hard. Putting a kink in its tail is the hard part.

— Mason Cooley

Birth dates and bathroom scales tell more truth than I want to know.

— Mason Cooley

Life just keeps unfolding, ignoring our praise or blame.

— Mason Cooley

If we knew enough, fortune would turn out to be nature.

— Mason Cooley

Man invented the gods. Then the gods went off on their own, but not far.

— Mason Cooley

The mind demands rules; the facts demand exceptions.

— Mason Cooley

When courtesy fails, be nasty, brutish, and short.

— Mason Cooley

Artistic inspiration ignores the law of supply and demand.

— Mason Cooley

Old and young disbelieve one another's truths.

— Mason Cooley

Only those in comfortable circumstances think love is the most important thing.

— Mason Cooley

I do not regret the folly of my youth, but the timidity.

— Mason Cooley

The lover as baby is a less troubling idea than the baby as lover.

— Mason Cooley

Nudity is the costume of lovers and corpses.

— Mason Cooley

Philosophy likes to keen common sense on the run.

— Mason Cooley

Death promises nothing--not even oblivion.

— Mason Cooley

In an aphorism, aptness counts for more than truth.

— Mason Cooley

Most of us live in a world that has ceased to exist.

— Mason Cooley

The critical spirit never knows when to stop meddling.

— Mason Cooley

The negative always wins at last, but I like it none the better for that.

— Mason Cooley

The lyric deals with love and sorrow, the aphorism with contradiction and deceit.

— Mason Cooley

When lying to someone, look him straight in the eye.

— Mason Cooley

English has borrowed from everywhere and now goes everywhere.

— Mason Cooley

Intuition is often mistaken, but not altogether.

— Mason Cooley

Adversity can strengthen us if it does not go on too long.

— Mason Cooley

Those who refuse to play second fiddle may wind up playing no fiddle at all.

— Mason Cooley