Mason Cooley Quotes

When a modest man praises himself, people listen.

People who behave at forty as they did at twenty must sometimes wonder why their charm is not working.

Being enthusiastic settles nothing.

Asceticism and celibacy can conceal many incapacities.

The aphorism offers a momentary sense of mastery over some confusion or unhappiness.

The aphorism sometimes casts off cynicism and expresses strong feeling.

Which is the supplement? Fantasy or daily routine?

The Lady: a fluty voice, sensible shoes, a melancholy sense of living by rules few still remember.

Matter-of-fact descriptions make the improbable seem real.

Snarls and sobs show that a love affair is getting serious.

I am the center of the world, but the control panel seems to be somewhere else.

My self-absorption warms me; yours boils me.

When I go out, I hope to leave the worst of myself at home.

Self-analysis always cheats.

I create my social existence by earning and spending.

New York loves itself in an unkind and fanatical way.

In New York, pretending to be above the struggle means no seat on the bus and a table next to the kitchen.

Progress may feel more like loss than gain.

As night falls, every joy glows brighter.

We express disappointment in everything except ourselves.

Disappointment proves that expectations were mistaken.

Conformity makes everything easier, if you can still breathe.

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

The more powerless people are, the longer they are kept waiting.

Everyone values the good nature of a man with a gun.

The party out of office becomes the articulate one.

Lawyers may reason powerfully, but power settles most issues.

Home again, I can groan, scratch, and talk to myself.

Originality is in the eye of the beholder.

We often mistake the original part of ourselves for a weakness.

Existence is not a mystery unless you think it has a meaning.

Treat unhappiness as a defect and fewer would embrace it.

Seek and Hide: the Lover gazes at the Beloved. The Beloved looks away. The Beloved turns and looks at the Lover. The Lover runs away.

My intentions go one way, my desires another. Thus I feel both self-indulgent and deprived.

Desire is wakeful; satisfaction dozes.

The young break rules for fun. The old for profit.

In youth, love and art. In age, investments and antiques.

The young are just as opinionated as the old, but have more exciting things to do than sit around airing their opinions all day.

History takes place between the Fall and the Apocalypse, with a narrow escape route called Salvation.

My thought has been shaped by books; my desires by pictures.

In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same.

I did not know I was in my prime until afterwards.

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

Self-deception is nature; hypocrisy is art.

The hysterical find too much significance in things. The depressed find too little.

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

English has borrowed from everywhere and now goes everywhere.

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

Nothing easier than to confuse busyness with goodness.

Only the strong and the hopeful are able to revolt.