Mason Cooley

Affection reproaches, but does not denounce.

— Mason Cooley

Wallace Stevens: the Platonist celebrates endless change, but with regret.

— Mason Cooley

My neglected duties crowd around me in my dreams, murmuring.

— Mason Cooley

Holding unconventional opinions makes people feel they have strong characters.

— Mason Cooley

Clothes make the body both mysterious and historical.

— Mason Cooley

Age must give way to youth, no doubt. But not yet, not yet.

— Mason Cooley

Fruitless striving breeds less despair than inaction.

— Mason Cooley

Cruel impulses stir all about my kindly heart.

— Mason Cooley

To avoid tripping on the chain of the past, you have to pick it up and wind it about you.

— Mason Cooley

Spirituality now wanders from sex to drugs to art to revolution to violence--whatever seems to promise deliverance from the quotidian.

— Mason Cooley

Imprudence relies on luck, prudence on method. That gives prudence less edge than it expects.

— Mason Cooley

Listen to what people say about themselves; they will tell you everything you need to know.

— Mason Cooley

Travelling, I worry about luggage, prices, and strange food. At home, I am free to broaden my mind by thinking about the…

— Mason Cooley

An illicit love affair seems sweetly old-fashioned in the age of one night stands and orgies.

— Mason Cooley

Loving, not the beloved, is the joy of love. The beloved, knowing this, most resolutely declines to be grateful.

— Mason Cooley

Pessimists fear becoming the dupes of Hope. Optimists enjoy Hope's company, and consider being duped no great matter.

— Mason Cooley

Reclusive? The inner city will secure your privacy better than any desert cave.

— Mason Cooley

Failure makes us envious. Success makes us greedy.

— Mason Cooley

I know that I am very much like everybody else, but not really.

— Mason Cooley

Sophistication knows the score, but is powerless to change it.

— Mason Cooley

The desire to perform impedes conversation.

— Mason Cooley

Charity does not like arithmetic; selfishness worships it.

— Mason Cooley

Civilization creates discontents; barbarism creates quick endings.

— Mason Cooley

Acknowledge your limitationsor they will tyrannize over you.

— Mason Cooley

No chaos, no creation. Evidence: the kitchen at mealtime.

— Mason Cooley

The idealist regards facts as provisional.

— Mason Cooley

Unhappiness is too common to call for special measures.

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

A theology whose god is a metaphor is wasting its time.

— Mason Cooley

I enjoy my rights, but I revel in my privileges.

— Mason Cooley

The eye deals with excess more easily than the stomach does.

— Mason Cooley

When I prayed for success, I forgot to ask for sound sleep and good digestion.

— Mason Cooley

If your nose is up in the air, you cannot see where you are going.

— Mason Cooley

My self-absorption warms me; yours boils me.

— Mason Cooley

Asceticism without religion is just another way of cultivating peculiar sensations.

— Mason Cooley

Imagination has rules, but wecan only guess what they are.

— Mason Cooley

You gave me a significant look, but significant of what?

— Mason Cooley

Metaphysics keeps surviving its obituaries.

— Mason Cooley

Good manners can render even virtue tolerable.

— Mason Cooley

Literature may be false, but it is not trivial.

— Mason Cooley