Mason Cooley

Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.

— Mason Cooley

Make the expectations lively enough, and action will follow.

— Mason Cooley

To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.

— Mason Cooley

Blackmail is one of the great pastimes of family life.

— Mason Cooley

Cynicism often draws correct conclusions, but nobody could live by its lights.

— Mason Cooley

In even the happiest love story, the World wins at last.

— Mason Cooley

Small faults and virtues are for daily life. The big ones are for emergencies.

— Mason Cooley

As equality increases, so does the number of people struggling for predominance.

— Mason Cooley

In the theater of confusion, knowing the location of the exits is what counts.

— Mason Cooley

An adolescent is both an impulsive child and a self-starting adult.

— Mason Cooley

I do not remember joy or sorrow in childhood, but listening for clues.

— Mason Cooley

Mild brown eyes beckon me to the past, but memory provides no clue.

— Mason Cooley

Truth can remain silent. Lies must be spoken.

— Mason Cooley

Boredom is the only sure cure for neurosis.

— Mason Cooley

We worship the aesthetic, but we do not have faith in it.

— Mason Cooley

Fame is fickle, but Obscurity is usually faithful to the end.

— Mason Cooley

Jealousy is inconsolable because it cannot know the beloved

— Mason Cooley

Advice is more agreeable in the mouth than in the ear. Mason Cooley

— Mason Cooley

Comedy distances pain, but leaves signs of it everywhere.

— Mason Cooley

Guilt agonizes over trifles, ignores habitual wrongdoing.

— Mason Cooley

Spontaneity comes after skill, not before.

— Mason Cooley

Wisdom knows when to return death's embrace.

— Mason Cooley

Imprudence gets us into more trouble than actual misdeeds do.

— Mason Cooley

A free spirit must be able to surmount anxiety time after time.

— Mason Cooley

Most of my decisions in life seem absent-minded but inevitable.

— Mason Cooley

I put second things first, and then worry about first things.

— Mason Cooley

Everyone values the good nature of a man with a gun.

— Mason Cooley

Flatter me, but delicately, please, for I am fastidious.

— Mason Cooley

Inconsistency has been overpraised by people who do not expect to suffer from it.

— Mason Cooley

A quick smile is more seductive than a slinky dress.

— Mason Cooley

In new situations, I look carefully at appearances. In familiar ones, I glance.

— Mason Cooley

Beggars remind us that not all miseries arise from our ideas.

— Mason Cooley

No use saying necessity is making a mistake.

— Mason Cooley

The hero used to be the one in white. Now he is harder to spot.

— Mason Cooley

My mother's mild-eyed sadness looks at me from the eyes of those I love.

— Mason Cooley

Self-righteousness is the most shameless slut of all.

— Mason Cooley

Stupidity is a fact of life, but unmentionable. The new Prudery.

— Mason Cooley

Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.

— Mason Cooley

People often imagine that being hard to please confers a certain superiority.

— Mason Cooley

The imaginary audience for my life is growing small and silent.

— Mason Cooley