Mason Cooley Quotes

City people make most of the fuss about the charms of country life.

No one can remember himself as an unpleasant child.

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

Self-righteous victims invite extra nails.

A sure cure for boredom: fast until you are ravenous.

F. Scott Fitzgerald thought that prolonging his adolescence would protect his talent.

Duty is whatever opposes inclination.

Abyss-mongering makes professors and poets feel daring.

Moderation shifts when extremes do.

Modern thought does not offer consolations, but upsets.

Unlike the actual, the fictional explains itself.

Literature may be false, but it is not trivial.

I answered my father's demands for sympathy with silence.

Most people find just being themselves not enough of a show.

A quick smile is more seductive than a slinky dress.

As the tenor roars his passion, I think sadly of my spreading middle, and his.

The egg is the symbol of perfection. Do you want an egg?

Anybody can lead a frivolous life. A frivolous writer, however, must have taste and intelligence.

Oblivion waits without beckoning or threatening.

If you are going to break a Law of Art, make the crime interesting.

Unlike life, when books become meaningless, they are making a point.

The Simple Life is not a simple life.

Eccentricity: strength of character doubling back on itself.

Ladies and gentlemen are supposed to be looked after by others, like children and pets.

In the street, the gaze of desire is furtive or menacing.

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

Civilization creates discontents; barbarism creates quick endings.

Self-conscious? Try a wig, a corset, a veil, a beard. Or cultivate shamelessness.

Radical historians now the tell the story of Thanksgiving from the point of view of the turkey.

Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.

I cling to depression, thinking it a form of truth.

Regret for wasted time is more wasted time

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

In love, we worry more about the meaning of silences than the meaning of words.

Many think that assigning blame settles matters.

You know you're in love when you stop comparing.

Fortuna likes to find a crowd and follow it.

The only peace is being out of earshot.

A blocked path also offers guidance.

Position yourself well enough, and circumstances will do the rest.

The Puritan sours his pleasures by disguising them as duties.

Electricity, water, gas, and steam course through the walls of my building, keeping it alive.

Striving toward a goal puts a more pleasing construction on our advance toward death.

If a problem is insoluble, it is Necessity. Leave it alone.

Pleasure usually comes when called, but not happiness.

Masturbation is a democratic pleasure, practiced by rich and poor, young and old, married and single.

When understanding would be too difficult, I become trusting.

Men and women would be even more unhappy if they really understood one another.