Mason Cooley Quotes
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451. “A quiet fool can go undiscovered for a long time.”

— Mason Cooley

452. “When a man bores a woman, she complains. When a woman bores a man, he ignores her.”

— Mason Cooley

453. “Enjoy the insult as you deliver it, before you learn its cost.”

— Mason Cooley

454. “Pain pays no attention to moans or excuses.”

— Mason Cooley

455. “The limitations of pleasure cannot be overcome by more pleasure.”

— Mason Cooley

456. “Finding a thought for an aphorism is not hard. Putting a kink in its tail is the hard part.”

— Mason Cooley

457. “The realist lies for advantage. The fantasist lies to give his dreams a flavor of reality.”

— Mason Cooley

458. “Lonely people console themselves with self-absorption or curiosity.”

— Mason Cooley

459. “Arrogance rides triumphantly through the gates, barely glancing at the old woman about to cut the rope and spring shut the trap.”

— Mason Cooley

460. “A Museum of fetishes would give special attention to the history of underwear.”

— Mason Cooley

461. “Tales of adultery are much improved by period costumes.”

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

463. “Explanations comfort us by giving the impression that there is an order in things.”

— Mason Cooley

464. “Sweet smiles soften judgment. Sweet haunches unseat it.”

— Mason Cooley

465. “Now defined as art, the totem has lost cult, taboo, and custom.”

— Mason Cooley

466. “Life is struggle and sleep.”

— Mason Cooley

467. “The limits of prudence: one cannot jump out of a burning building gradually.”

— Mason Cooley

468. “Jargon: any technical language we do not understand.”

— Mason Cooley

469. “Complainers rule out happiness, mentioning it only as something lost.”

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

471. “Never lie in writing.”

— Mason Cooley

472. “Prudence does not save us, but shows us pictures of our destroyers.”

— Mason Cooley

473. “I am forbidden sugar, fat, and alcohol. So hooray, I guess, for oatmeal, lemon juice, and chicken soup.”

— Mason Cooley

474. “The nudes of art are not so distant from pornography as prudish pedants pretend.”

— Mason Cooley

475. “Cruelty is softened by fear, not pity.”

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

477. “Rule of art: let half-blind purpose lead you.”

— Mason Cooley

478. “Faith no doubt moves mountains, but not necessarily to where we want them.”

— Mason Cooley

479. “Pedagogical romances leave the mentor disgruntled, the pupil confused.”

— Mason Cooley

480. “The haiku lets meaning float; the aphorism pins it down.”

— Mason Cooley

481. “To win hearts, smile kindly on people’s weaknesses.”

— Mason Cooley

482. “Outside literature, high-flown sentiments are merely exasperating.”

— Mason Cooley

483. “Somehow the body keeps life going despite the ravaging negations of the mind.”

— Mason Cooley

484. “Writers mean more than they say and say more than they mean.”

— Mason Cooley

485. “Literature may be false, but it is not trivial.”

— Mason Cooley

486. “I would enjoy experiencing the hollowness of success at first- hand.”

— Mason Cooley

487. “Death is frightening, and so is Eternal Life.”

— Mason Cooley

488. “Commitments, not feelings, hold life together.”

— Mason Cooley

489. “Boredom makes me sleepy or restless.”

— Mason Cooley

490. “As desire recedes, the world becomes clear, pale, and empty.”

— Mason Cooley

491. “Many count on their disadvantages to cover for them.”

— Mason Cooley

492. “Every parent can imagine the joys of child abuse.”

— Mason Cooley

493. “Happiness is often hard-hearted.”

— Mason Cooley

494. “Paradise endangered: garden snakes and mice are appearing in the shadowy corners of Dutch Old Master paintings.”

— Mason Cooley

495. “Hope and despair ignore one another’s cries.”

— Mason Cooley

496. “Keep your lies short and simple.”

— Mason Cooley

497. “Suffering teaches us only that we suffer. Joy shows us which way to go.”

— Mason Cooley

498. “Intelligence is predatory, but full of fastidiousness and frights.”

— Mason Cooley

499. “Perversity depends on reversal and substitution.”

— Mason Cooley

500. “I answered my father’s demands for sympathy with silence.”

— Mason Cooley