Mason Cooley Quotes

After rejection - misery, then thoughts of revenge, and finally, oh well, another try elsewhere.

Bravery despite defeat is praiseworthy. Victory despite cowardice is beyond praise.

To avoid eye contact, kiss.

Kafka: cries of helplessness in twenty powerful volumes.

Being charming takes time and effort, and I am busy.

Cynicism is full of naive disappointments.

A blunt statement can be as false as any other.

Nostalgia keeps dissolving the ironic narratives in which I have contained my past.

It is possible to interpret without observing, but not to observe without interpreting.

Most reputations are not ruined but forgotten.

Few friendships could survive the moodiness of love affairs.

The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.

Winning means outlasting everyone else.

The great advantage of a new friend is that we have not yet found one another out.

Beggars beg to get money, not to reproach the passerby.

Cynicism has its own zealots.

Street sign: Ho Hum Road & Easy Street In retirement, I look for days off from my days off.

Living alone is good for privacy, bad for full-scale cooking and moving heavy furniture.

Dancing and running shake up the chemistry of happiness.

If the world would apologize, I might consider a reconciliation.

If I play hard to get, soon the phone stops ringing altogether.

One's fetishes are fascinating, but not because of their beauty or significance. The same could be said for one's genitals, or one's children.

Rage is exciting, but leaves me confused and exhausted.

Whether I give to a beggar or not, his existence puts me in the wrong.

Human nature is a scoundrel's favorite explanation.

Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.

Change is upsetting. Repetition is tedious. Three cheers for variation!

Everyone knows that (1) happiness is the goal of life, and (2) happiness is a chimera.

Heroes are born to be troublemakers.

Hypocrisy is the outside of cynicism.

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

Children pay little attention to their parents' teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully

The routines of tourism are even more monotonous than those of daily life.

Human society sustains itself by transforming nature into garbage.

Money is to my social existence what health is to my body.

Ultimately, blind faith is the only kind.

To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.

Living alone makes it harder to find someone to blame.

Taste refers to the past, imagination to the future.

Money: power at its most liquid.

I win on my merits; my opponents win by cheating.

Fame is fickle, but Obscurity is usually faithful to the end.

The man of sensibility is too busy talking about his feelings to have time for good deeds.

Sincerity: willingness to spend one's own money.

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul has more threat than comfort.

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

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

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

Contempt for others, like masturbation, is best as a secret pleasure.

Courage, determination, and hard work are all very nice, but not so nice as an oil well in the back yard.