Mason Cooley Quotes

Every work of art changes its predecessors.

Politicians love change, but of details only.

Everything changes as it is written down.

The familiar changes as we cling to it.

Boredom, not the will, is the mother of change. Necessity is the father.

Nature knows no difference between weeds and flowers.

To a suicide: You just poisoned the wrong person.

Simplicity is a strict taskmaster.

The best propaganda omits rather than invents

Don't milk the cow too hard. She will kick you.

Doubt is long-winded. Certainty is brief.

Failure makes us envious. Success makes us greedy.

As a child I was told by my parents that I was happy, but I did not believe them.

Indifference creates an artificial peace.

Jealousy is inconsolable because it cannot know the beloved

Eternity eludes us, even as a thought.

Most people regard getting their way as a matter of simple justice.

Talk about yourself as much as you like, but do not expect others to listen.

While we are reading, we are all Don Quixote.

When sages commend excess, Desire is sick.

Hatred observes with more care than love does.

Conscious thought is the tidying up at the end.

Some loves are like a vice that has ceased to give pleasure.

The only peace is being out of earshot.

While there's life, there's fear.

Sloth, not ill-will, makes me unjust.

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.

People who abhor solitude may abhor company almost as much.

Great talkers are trying to fill the gap between themselves and others, but only widen it.

Sexual attraction pairs people, but does not match them.

Wisdom is dead. Long live information.

I am easy-going right up to the borders of my self-interest.

Timidity keeps me safe and sad in a narrow room.

When lying to someone, look him straight in the eye.

Experience is a great spoiler of pleasures.

Nonsense is socially OK, but not stupidity.

Dogs often remind us of the human, ail-too human. Cats, never.

Every life has a love story, even though the beloved may be imaginary, or a cat.

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

Understanding replaces imaginary fears with real ones.

Music dissolves the straight and narrow.

Listen to what people say about themselves; they will tell you everything you need to know.

Beauty is lyrical. Ugliness is elegiac.

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

In the great cities, winter glitters with art and feasting. But poetry, the country cousin, sees only the dearth of the fields.

Abyss-mongering makes professors and poets feel daring.

Title deeds generally outlast poems.

When poets go off the boil, they sound like bumble bees; when critics do, they sound like sewing machines.

Rule of religion: purpose breathes even in dirt and stones.

The worship of Mammon may be vulgar or immoral, but it persists while other religions falter and disappear.