Mason Cooley Quotes

Too timid to talk back, I shot my adversary.

To a suicide: You just poisoned the wrong person.

Reason argues the case, but fact may determine the judgment.

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

The nonsense that charms is close to sense.

Sleepy-head is no longer aroused by tragic imaginings.

To succeed, find the right rut and stay with it.

I change my opinions often, but not my way of thinking.

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

Affection reproaches, but does not denounce.

Work at first rescues us, then ravages us.

Old photograph: amid the set poses of her family, a young girl smiles and raises her hand a little.

The novelty we want is always close to the familiar.

Realism absorbs the ideal by adding a few small imperfections. Example: it paints a few specks of mud on the white gown of the Lady in the Garden.

Lonely people keep up a ceaseless flow of commentary on themselves.

The language of pornography is abusive, that of romance adoring. Both are addressed to a fetish.

Self-satisfaction and self-pity are both condemned. What are people permitted to feel about themselves?

Futility has become a great subject, full of opportunities.

Aphorisms may equivocate, but they must not wobble.

I have learned to keep to myself how exceptional I am.

If you insist on asking me why I feel the way I do, I plan to take the Fifth Amendment.

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

Good advice is never as helpful as an interest-free loan.

I may forget my dignity, but you may not.

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

For some, bottles of liquor gleam like the towers of Eldorado.

Loneliness is more likely to lead to fussy housekeeping than to grand views of the Universe.

We are more tied to our faults than to our virtues.

Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.

To postpone unpleasantness is human; to forget it is divine.

Heroes are born to be troublemakers.

Indifference creates an artificial peace.

A crisis unmasks everyone.

The plastic surgeon's knife slashes at time, which may seem to retreat, but then keeps on coming.

Publish in haste and repent at leisure.

Metaphors convince at once or not at all.

Lies and promises are necessary but not sufficient.

The narcissist enjoys being looked at and not looking back.

Faith moves mountains, but you have to keep pushing while you are praying.

My strengths make me contemptuous. My weaknesses make me charitable.

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

Deconstruction glorifies the critic, humiliates the author, and makes the reader wonder why he bothered.

Our most important decisions are made while we are thinking about something else.

Sexual attraction keeps throwing self-interest off course.

My secrets are petty but humiliating.

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

Unlike the ambiguity of life, the ambiguity of language does reach a limit.

Wisdom cannot prevent a fall, but may cushion it.