Top 500 Mason Cooley Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “The greater the privilege, the more hidden the arrogance. The Emperor of China need not exist.”

— Mason Cooley

352. “Wit: a whim followed by a wham.”

— Mason Cooley

353. “Frivolous sorrow is folly. Frivolous enjoyment is not.”

— Mason Cooley

354. “Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth.”

— Mason Cooley

355. “Memories contain hidden editorials on current events.”

— Mason Cooley

356. “The beginning of self-knowledge: recognizing that your motives are the same as other people’s.”

— Mason Cooley

357. “The only peace is being out of earshot.”

— Mason Cooley

358. “Progress may feel more like loss than gain.”

— Mason Cooley

359. “Beauty compels us; reason merely cajoles.”

— Mason Cooley

360. “The New Right: kiss the bankers and spank the babies.”

— Mason Cooley

361. “Reclusive? The inner city will secure your privacy better than any desert cave.”

— Mason Cooley

362. “An adolescent is both an impulsive child and a self-starting adult.”

— Mason Cooley

363. “Think carefully before asking for justice. Mercy might be safer.”

— Mason Cooley

364. “At sixty, I know little more about wisdom than I did at thirty, but I know a great deal more about folly.”

— Mason Cooley

365. “Self-righteous victims invite extra nails.”

— Mason Cooley

366. “The imaginary audience for my life is growing small and silent.”

— Mason Cooley

367. “I have forgiven you. Nevertheless, begone!”

— Mason Cooley

368. “Deconstruction: peering suspiciously at the text, I wait for it to make a slip and betray itself.”

— Mason Cooley

369. “Young girls giggle with nervous delight at the erections they inspire.”

— Mason Cooley

370. “Mind and body obstruct one another’s pleasures.”

— Mason Cooley

371. “The muse is blind as Cupid and skittish as Diana.”

— Mason Cooley

372. “Attacking a belief can be the first step toward embracing it.”

— Mason Cooley

373. “To succeed, find the right rut and stay with it.”

— Mason Cooley

374. “Even in rapture, part of the mind watches.”

— Mason Cooley

375. “Lying just for the fun of it is either art or pathology.”

— Mason Cooley

376. “Self-absorption intensifies isolation, but permits it to go unnoticed.”

— Mason Cooley

377. “Bad faith makes the most of every ambiguity.”

— Mason Cooley

378. “Laughing at our friends, we avenge the disappointment they have caused.”

— Mason Cooley

379. “To appear well dressed, be skinny and tall.”

— Mason Cooley

380. “Good manners can render even virtue tolerable.”

— Mason Cooley

381. “A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.”

— Mason Cooley

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

— Mason Cooley

383. “Transcendence is something between a metaphor and a miracle.”

— Mason Cooley

384. “Denial of one appetite sharpens the others.”

— Mason Cooley

385. “The modernist writers found despair inspirational.”

— Mason Cooley

386. “Grandiosity lessens as work proceeds.”

— Mason Cooley

387. “The familiar changes as we cling to it.”

— Mason Cooley

388. “What I eat turns into my body. What I read turns into my mind.”

— Mason Cooley

389. “My father liked to moralize, and so do I. But he was in earnest, while I am embarrassed and pretend that I am merely being witty.”

— Mason Cooley

390. “Passion cooks. Reason cleans.”

— Mason Cooley

391. “Lies save trouble now, but may return in thunder and lightning.”

— Mason Cooley

392. “People who expect deference resent mere civility.”

— Mason Cooley

393. “True self is the part of us that does not change when circumstances do.”

— Mason Cooley

394. “We often disguise our reflexes as deliberate actions.”

— Mason Cooley

395. “Being enthusiastic settles nothing.”

— Mason Cooley

396. “Intelligence complicates. Wisdom simplifies.”

— Mason Cooley

397. “Undecidability is a useful category even in dealing with restaurant menus.”

— Mason Cooley

398. “The Muses inspire art and pretend not to notice when Mammon buys it.”

— Mason Cooley

399. “Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.”

— Mason Cooley

400. “The right time to die is never exactly now.”

— Mason Cooley