Mason Cooley Quotes

"Stated clearly enough, an idea may cancel itself out."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Idea, May)

"Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Age, Middle age, Opera)

"Some loves are like a vice that has ceased to give pleasure."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Pleasure, Vice)

"Sloth, not ill-will, makes me unjust."
- Mason Cooley

"Self-reform is the only kind that works."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Self)

"Seeing my malevolent face in the mirror, my benevolent soul shrinks back."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Soul)

"Talk about yourself as much as you like, but do not expect others to listen."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Talk)

"The educated do not share a common body of information, but a common state of mind."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Body, Information, Mind, State)

"Sincerity: willingness to spend one's own money."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Money)

"Taste refers to the past, imagination to the future."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Imagination, Future, Past, Taste)

"The aim of literary ambition is to demonstrate one's greatness of soul."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Soul, Greatness, Ambition, Literary)

"The beginning of self-knowledge: recognizing that your motives are the same as other people's."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People, Beginning, Motives, Self)

"The beloved is the ultimate fetish."
- Mason Cooley

"The body has a mind of its own."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Body, Mind)

"Romantics consider common sense vulgar."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Common sense)

"The doctrine of the immortality of the soul has more threat than comfort."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Soul, Comfort, Doctrine, Immortality)

"Promiscuity is like never reading past the first page. Monogamy is like reading the same book over and over."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: First, Past, Reading)

"The gods are watching, but idly, yawning."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Gods)

"The higher the moral tone, the more suspect the speaker."
- Mason Cooley

"The discontented believe that their regrets are about the past."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Past)

"Poor but happy is not a phrase invented by a poor person."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Poor)

"Often, when I want to consult my impulses, I cannot find them."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Impulses, Want)

"Old age: I fall asleep during the funerals of my friends."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Friends, Funerals, Old)

"Old and young disbelieve one another's truths."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Old)

"Only the broken-hearted know the truth about love."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love, Truth)

"Opportunity knocks, but doesn't always answer to its name."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Opportunity, Name)

"Orgasm: the genitals sneezing."
- Mason Cooley

"Other people's beliefs may be myths, but not mine."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People, Beliefs, May, Myths)

"Outside books, we avoid colorful characters."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Books)

"People believe that photographs are true and therefore cannot be art."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Art, People)

"Rage is exciting, but leaves me confused and exhausted."
- Mason Cooley

"Philosophy likes to keen common sense on the run."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Common sense, Philosophy)

"Romance is tempestuous. Love is calm."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love, Romance)

"Preserving tradition has become a nice hobby, like stamp collecting."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Tradition)

"Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Procrastination)

"The power of lying is much less than the power of what is not to be discussed."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Power, Lying)

"Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: History, Nature, Effort, Human nature, Psychology, Trying)

"The horse stares at its captor, barely remembering the free kicks of youth."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Youth)

"Reality is the name we give to our disappointments."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Disappointments, Name, Reality)

"Reason enables us to get around in the world of ideas, but cannot prescribe our thoughts."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Ideas, Thoughts, Reason, World)

"Reputation runs behind the current state of affairs."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Reputation, State)

"Rereading, we find a new book."
- Mason Cooley

"Rescue someone unwilling to look after himself, and he will cling to you like a dangerous illness."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Illness, Will)

"People who abhor solitude may abhor company almost as much."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People, Company, May, Solitude)

"Who would not give up wit for power and beauty?"
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Beauty, Power, Wit)

"Unlike the actual, the fictional explains itself."
- Mason Cooley

"We are more tied to our faults than to our virtues."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Faults)

"We are prepared for insults, but compliments leave us baffled."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Compliments, Insults)

"Well-behaved: he always speaks as if his mother might be listening."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Mother, Listening)

"What lies behind appearance is usually another appearance."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Appearance, Lies)

"When a man bores a woman, she complains. When a woman bores a man, he ignores her."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Man, Woman)

"When I prayed for success, I forgot to ask for sound sleep and good digestion."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Success, Sleep, Sound)

"When sages commend excess, Desire is sick."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Desire, Excess)

"The passion for money is never fickle."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Money, Passion)

"While we are reading, we are all Don Quixote."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Reading)

"Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Paris)

"Why do we never expect dull people to be rascals?"
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People)

"Without civilization, we would not turn into animals, but vegetables."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Civilization, Animals)

"Women encourage men to be childish, then scold them."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Men, Women)

"Worried about being a dull fellow? You might develop your talent for being irritating."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Talent, Being)

"Writers mean more than they say and say more than they mean."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Writers)

"Young men preen. Old men scheme."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Men, Old)

"Young poets bewail the passing of love; old poets, the passing of time. There is surprisingly little difference."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love, Time, Difference, Old, Poets)

"Office politics are bloody-minded, but weak on content."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Politics, Content, Office)

"Many gloat over their own troubles."
- Mason Cooley

"While there's life, there's fear."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Life, Fear)

"The wisdom of age: don't stop walking."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Wisdom, Walking)

"The lonely become either thoughtful or empty."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Lonely, Thoughtful)

"The man in the street is always a stranger."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Man)

"The man of sensibility is too busy talking about his feelings to have time for good deeds."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Time, Feelings, Deeds, Man, Sensibility, Talking)

"The novel avoids the sublime and seeks out the interesting."
- Mason Cooley

"The only peace is being out of earshot."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Peace, Being)

"The passions are the same in every conflict, large or small."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Conflict)

"The ravaged face in the mirror hides the enchanting youth that is the real me."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Youth)

"The real secrets are not the ones I tell."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Secrets)

"The sage belongs to the same obsolete repertory as the virtuous maiden and the enlightened monarch."
- Mason Cooley

"Ultimately, blind faith is the only kind."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Faith, Blind)

"The time I kill is killing me."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Time, Killing)

"Travelers never think that they are the foreigners."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Foreigners)

"There are different rules for reading, for thinking, and for talking. Writing blends all three of them."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Reading, Rules, Talking, Thinking, Writing)

"Think carefully before asking for justice. Mercy might be safer."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Justice, Mercy)

"Thinking about the universe has now been handed over to specialists. The rest of us merely read about it."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Now, Rest, Thinking, Universe)

"Three meals plus bedtime make four sure blessings a day."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Blessings, Day)

"To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Time, Successful)

"To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Contempt, Dignity, Forget)

"To understand a literary style, consider what it omits."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Literary, Style)

"To understand someone, find out how he spends his money."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Money)

"The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Laughter)

"The shades of respectability begin to close about the greying head."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Respectability)

"I love you is the inscription on Pandora's box."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love)

"If we think about the obvious long enough, it dissolves."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Obvious)

"Fulfillment is often more trouble than it is worth."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Fulfillment, Trouble, Worth)

"General statements omit what we really want to know. Example: some horses run faster than others."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Horses, Want)

"Good parties create a temporary youthfulness."
- Mason Cooley

"Hatred observes with more care than love does."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love, Care, Hatred)

"Hatred of the mother is familiar, but the mother's hatred still comes as a surprise."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Mother, Hatred)

"Human society sustains itself by transforming nature into garbage."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Nature, Society)

"Hypocrisy is the outside of cynicism."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Cynicism, Hypocrisy)

"Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Forgiveness, Faith)

"I know that I am what I am. But I am not sure what I am."
- Mason Cooley

"For many, immaturity is an ideal, not a defect."
- 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
(Related: Truth, Failure, Books)

"I see what you mean, but I do not think what you think."
- Mason Cooley

"I'm being treated like a sex object, cried the lady. No matter. I will take care of it, said Time soothingly."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Time, Sex, Being, Care, Lady, Will)

"Ideology has shaped the very sofa on which I sit."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Ideology)

"If beggars do not hate the rest of us, they are even more abject than I had imagined."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Hate, Rest)

"If I play hard to get, soon the phone stops ringing altogether."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Play)

"If modesty disappeared, so would exhibitionism."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Modesty)

"If success is a habit, it is a hard one to acquire."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Success, Habit)

"If the world would apologize, I might consider a reconciliation."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: World)

"I have learned to keep to myself how exceptional I am."
- Mason Cooley

"Faith moves mountains, but you have to keep pushing while you are praying."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Faith, Mountains)

"Observe decorum, and it will open a path to morality."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Morality, Open, Will)

"Even boredom has its crises."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Boredom)

"Even cats grow lonely and anxious."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Cats, Lonely)

"Even the most fickle are faithful to a few bad habits."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Habits)

"Events are called inevitable only after they have occurred."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Events)

"Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Courage, Act, Bed, Day)

"Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: History, Literary, Will, Word)

"Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Change, Excuses, Nothing)

"Friends are sometimes boring, but enemies never."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Enemies, Friends)

"Fail, and your friends feel superior. Succeed, and they feel resentful."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Friends, Succeed)

"I did not know I was in my prime until afterwards."
- Mason Cooley

"Families in which nothing is ever discussed usually have a lot not to discuss."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Nothing)

"Fantasy mirrors desire. Imagination reshapes it."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Imagination, Desire, Fantasy)

"Fastidious taste makes enjoyment a struggle."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Enjoyment, Struggle, Taste)

"Fears and lies intensify consciousness."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Consciousness, Lies)

"Few artists can afford artistic temperament."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Artists, Temperament)

"Few friendships could survive the moodiness of love affairs."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love)

"First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: First, Literary, Literature, Theory)

"Flattery and insults raise the same question: What do you want?"
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Flattery, Insults, Want)

"Folly always knows the answer."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Folly)

"Expensive advertising courts us with hints and images. The ordinary kind merely says, Buy."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Advertising)

"If you are going to break a Law of Art, make the crime interesting."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Art, Crime, Law)

"Lying just for the fun of it is either art or pathology."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Art, Fun, Lying)

"Magic trick: to make people disappear, ask them to fulfill their promises."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People, Magic, Promises)

"Malice is always authentic and sincere."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Malice)

"Middle age went by while I was mourning for my lost youth."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Age, Middle age, Mourning, Youth)

"Melancholy is as seductive as Ecstasy."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Ecstasy, Melancholy)

"Eternity eludes us, even as a thought."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Thought, Eternity)

"Mind and body obstruct one another's pleasures."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Body, Mind)

"Minds will wander even during the Last Judgment."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Judgment, Will)

"Mistakes are the only universal form of originality."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Mistakes, Originality)

"Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Greed, Innocence, Lust)

"Money: power at its most liquid."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Power)

"Moo may represent an idea, but only the cow knows."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Idea, May)

"Most people regard getting their way as a matter of simple justice."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People, Justice)

"Humor does not rescue us from unhappiness, but enables us to move back from it a little."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Humor, Unhappiness)

"My mind is led astray by every faint rustle."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Mind)

"My parents wanted me to solace them for sorrows they denied having had."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Parents)

"My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Fire)

"My thought has been shaped by books; my desires by pictures."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Thought, Books)

"Never ask a bore a question."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Question)

"Never try to leap from a standstill."
- Mason Cooley

"No chaos, no creation. Evidence: the kitchen at mealtime."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Chaos, Creation, Kitchen)

"Money is to my social existence what health is to my body."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Health, Money, Body, Existence)

"In psychoanalysis, only the fee is exactly what it seems to be."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Psychoanalysis)

"Most reputations are not ruined but forgotten."
- Mason Cooley

"Love begins with an image; lust with a sensation."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love, Lust)

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

"Imagination has rules, but we can only guess what they are."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Imagination, Rules)

"In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: State)

"In love, we worry more about the meaning of silences than the meaning of words."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love, Meaning, Words, Worry)

"In the game of love, the losers are more celebrated than the winners."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Love)

"In the street, the gaze of desire is furtive or menacing."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Desire)

"Innocence is thought charming because it offers delightful possibilities for exploitation."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Thought, Exploitation, Innocence, Possibilities)

"Innocence: I am only stepping on your face because it lies in my path."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Lies)

"Irony regards every simple truth as a challenge."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Truth, Challenge, Irony)

"Language is the friendliest of the things from which we cannot escape."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Language)

"Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Logic, Rules, Thinking)

"In every death, a busy world comes to an end."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Death, End, World)

"It is possible to interpret without observing, but not to observe without interpreting."
- Mason Cooley

"Living alone makes it harder to find someone to blame."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Blame, Living)

"Listening to people keeps them entertained."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People, Listening)

"Logic and fact keep interfering with the easy flow of conversation."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Conversation, Fact, Logic)

"Kindness eases everything almost as much as money does."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Money, Kindness)

"Kafka: cries of helplessness in twenty powerful volumes."
- Mason Cooley

"Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Journalism, Nothing)

"Don't stare into a mirror when you are trying to solve a problem."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Trying)

"Consciousness is our only reprieve from Time."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Time, Consciousness)

"Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Creativity)

"Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead."
- Mason Cooley

"Cruelty is softened by fear, not pity."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Fear, Cruelty, Pity)

"Cure for an obsession: get another one."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Cure)

"Cynicism is full of naive disappointments."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Cynicism, Disappointments)

"Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Happiness, Dancing, Running)

"Documents create a paper reality we call proof."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Proof, Reality)

"Conscious thought is the tidying up at the end."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Thought, End)

"A real idea keeps changing and appears in many places."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Idea)

"Death is frightening, and so is Eternal Life."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Death, Life)

"An omnipotent God is the only being with no reason to lie."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: God, Lie, Being, Reason)

"Affection reproaches, but does not denounce."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Affection)

"Complainers change their complaints, but they never reduce the amount of time spent in complaining."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Change, Time, Complaining, Complaints)

"A blocked path also offers guidance."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Guidance)

"A blunt statement can be as false as any other."
- Mason Cooley

"A great reader seldom recognizes his solitude."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Solitude)

"A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: People, Cats)

"A sense of blessedness comes from a change of heart, not from more blessings."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Change, Heart, Blessings, Sense)

"After an argument, silence may mean acceptance or the continuation of resistance by other means."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Acceptance, Argument, May, Silence)

"After my spectacular failures, I could not be satisfied with an ordinary success."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Success)

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

"Bad faith likes discourse on friendship and loyalty."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Faith, Friendship, Loyalty)

"Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Compassion)

"City people make most of the fuss about the charms of country life."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Life, People, Country)

"Children use all their wiles to get their way with adults. Adults do the same with children."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Children)

"Children now expect their parents to audition for approval."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Approval, Children, Now, Parents)

"Cats are inquisitive, but hate to admit it."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Cats, Hate)

"Amazing that the human race has taken enough time out from thinking about food or sex to create the arts and sciences."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Food, Time, Sex, Race, Thinking)

"'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'"
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Liberal)

"Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Art, Imitation, Innovation)

"At sixty, I know little more about wisdom than I did at thirty, but I know a great deal more about folly."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Wisdom, Folly)

"As equality increases, so does the number of people struggling for predominance."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Equality, People)

"Art seduces, but does not exploit."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Art)