Mason Cooley Quotes

You are as happy as you think you are, but not necessarily as miserable as you imagine.

The noble style immobilizes its subjects.

Thank God for the passing of the discomforts and vile cuisine of the age of chivalry!

I am invigorated by work, wasted by pleasure.

Idleness makes people feeble and peevish. Work makes them stalwart and prone to anger.

The sage belongs to the same obsolete repertory as the virtuous maiden and the enlightened monarch.

Rereading, we find a new book.

Nature knows no difference between weeds and flowers.

Sentimentality is the respect the cold-hearted pay to feeling.

Being enthusiastic settles nothing.

All the powers of imagination combine in hypochondria.

A sentimental aphorism is even more a surprise than a hard- boiled sonnet.

The tranquility of my room partakes too much of Forest Lawn.

A quiet fool can go undiscovered for a long time.

Lechery is secretive, but must finally reveal itself to at least one.

Writers tell more truths, and more lies, than most.

Who would not give up wit for power and beauty?

I want to appear ordinary, but I have it understood that I am not.

Amateurs believe their enthusiasm will suffice.

To learn a vocation, you also have to learn the frauds it practices and the promises it breaks.

I regret. I apologize. I blame myself. I continue as before.

Chastity is now treated as a sexual problem.

What is Providence for you may be Nemesis for me.

Rage is exciting, but leaves me confused and exhausted.

While there's life, there's fear.

True self is the part of us that does not change when circumstances do.

Asceticism and celibacy can conceal many incapacities.

I create my social existence by earning and spending.

Alzheimer's usually comes later than AIDS, but I decline to call that progress.

Sweet smiles soften judgment. Sweet haunches unseat it.

Analysis is more likely to adjust evidence than to adjust itself.

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

I am only interested in money because everyone else is.

The etiquette of romantic love is as elaborate as that surrounding the Emperor of China.

Those who follow where their genitals lead them often wind up in tedious company.

The smile of a politician is strong and friendly, but noncommittal.

Families in which nothing is ever discussed usually have a lot not to discuss.

The rich are happier than we are, and should be.

Laughter scares off lust.

Don't sacrifice yourself for me. I will not be grateful.

Most bad luck is the misfortune of not being an exception.

Attacking a belief can be the first step toward embracing it.

To make a thought my own, I must think it often.

Reading more than life teaches us to recognize ethos and pathos.

Your love for me is founded in a sentiment. My love for you is founded in the body. A precarious interchange.

Few things are worth doing perfectly.

By the time I have clarified a thought, I no longer want to think it.

The desire to be significant casts a pall.