Top 500 Mason Cooley Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Withhold admiration from a narcissist and be disliked. Give it and be treated with indifference.”

— Mason Cooley

102. “Living alone makes it harder to find someone to blame.”

— Mason Cooley

103. “Laughter scares off lust.”

— Mason Cooley

104. “Nature knows no difference between weeds and flowers.”

— Mason Cooley

105. “Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.”

— Mason Cooley

106. “Mistrust makes life difficult. Trust makes it risky.”

— Mason Cooley

107. “The Simple Life is not a simple life.”

— Mason Cooley

108. “The Enlightenment needs more shadow; the Romantic Movement less.”

— Mason Cooley

109. “Youth demands more than ordinary life. Age clings to it.”

— Mason Cooley

110. “The self-righteous feel no need to be charming, and thus double their offensiveness.”

— Mason Cooley

111. “Methodology gives those with no ideas something to do.”

— Mason Cooley

112. “I dream of vague shapes that hint of my heart’s desire.”

— Mason Cooley

113. “Vanity is easily duped. Ambition, not.”

— Mason Cooley

114. “Unconditional love is a lofty ideal, but unconditional hate is a fact well documented by history.”

— Mason Cooley

115. “I tried self-sacrifice a couple of times in my youth.”

— Mason Cooley

116. “Spontaneity comes after skill, not before.”

— Mason Cooley

117. “Life just keeps unfolding, ignoring our praise or blame.”

— Mason Cooley

118. “Boredom is the only sure cure for neurosis.”

— Mason Cooley

119. “Young men preen. Old men scheme.”

— Mason Cooley

120. “The body has a mind of its own.”

— Mason Cooley

121. “I am open-minded on all questions I care nothing about.”

— Mason Cooley

122. “Every declaration of love contains an unstated list of exceptions and demands.”

— Mason Cooley

123. “An insult angers me. Being ignored crushes me.”

— Mason Cooley

124. “No dignity without distance.”

— Mason Cooley

125. “An aphorism that does not score is just one more sentence.”

— Mason Cooley

126. “Reason is sight. Instinct is touch. Intuition is smell.”

— Mason Cooley

127. “What is Providence for you may be Nemesis for me.”

— Mason Cooley

128. “Envy grieves. Jealousy rages.”

— Mason Cooley

129. “Self-sacrifice usually contains an unspoken demand for payment.”

— Mason Cooley

130. “If you corner me, you are going to hear some unwelcome truths.”

— Mason Cooley

131. “The suburbs: signs of life, but no proofs.”

— Mason Cooley

132. “Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening.”

— Mason Cooley

133. “Critic’s delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.”

— Mason Cooley

134. “The shades of respectability begin to close about the greying head.”

— Mason Cooley

135. “Your flattery is as full of contempt as your insults were.”

— Mason Cooley

136. “Hatred of the mother is familiar, but the mother’s hatred still comes as a surprise.”

— Mason Cooley

137. “We are more tied to our faults than to our virtues.”

— Mason Cooley

138. “Consciousness is our only reprieve from Time.”

— Mason Cooley

139. “I have learned to keep to myself how exceptional I am.”

— Mason Cooley

140. “Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty-the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.”

— Mason Cooley

141. “Austerity causes constipation; excess, diarrhea.”

— Mason Cooley

142. “Conscience is the moralized form of self-absorption.”

— Mason Cooley

143. “Most of us live in a world that has ceased to exist.”

— Mason Cooley

144. “Sexual boredom is ousting sexual deviance as the problem.”

— Mason Cooley

145. “My parents wanted me to solace them for sorrows they denied having had.”

— Mason Cooley

146. “Consensus is usually made possible by vague language and shallow commitments.”

— Mason Cooley

147. “I gulp down my pleasures, chew over my miseries.”

— Mason Cooley

148. “I must like my profession, since I can hardly distinguish myself from it.”

— Mason Cooley

149. “Taste refers to the past, imagination to the future.”

— Mason Cooley

150. “A work of art is an echo chamber which repeats what people say about it.”

— Mason Cooley