1.
Pain narrows consciousness; pleasure blurs it.
Mason Cooley
Agony restricts awareness; joy obscures it.
2.
When Medusa looks in the mirror, she sees the Lady of Sorrows.
Mason Cooley
When Medusa gazes in the glass, she beholds the Countenance of Grief.
3.
My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet.
Mason Cooley
4.
Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth
Mason Cooley
5.
The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.
Mason Cooley
6.
Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.
Mason Cooley
7.
The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.
Mason Cooley
8.
'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'
Mason Cooley
9.
Friendship is love minus sex and plus reason. Love is friendship plus sex minus reason
Mason Cooley
10.
Totem poles and wooden masks no longer suggest tribal villages but fashionable drawing rooms in New York and Paris.
Mason Cooley
11.
Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.
Mason Cooley
12.
City people make most of the fuss about the charms of country life.
Mason Cooley
13.
Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids.
Mason Cooley
14.
Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.
Mason Cooley
15.
Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking.
Mason Cooley
16.
Self-inflicted misery smirks under its crown of thorns.
Mason Cooley
17.
You know you're in love when you stop comparing.
Mason Cooley
18.
Travelers never think that they are the foreigners.
Mason Cooley
19.
Magic lives in curves, not angles.
Mason Cooley
20.
Faith moves mountains, but you have to keep pushing while you are praying.
Mason Cooley
21.
Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.
Mason Cooley
22.
Narcissus weeps to find that his Image does not return his love.
Mason Cooley
23.
As every cockroach knows, thriving on poisons is the secret of success.
Mason Cooley
24.
If modesty disappeared, so would exhibitionism.
Mason Cooley
25.
A goldfish is reason enough for living, if someone needs a reason.
Mason Cooley
26.
If suffering brought wisdom, the dentist's office would be full of luminous ideas.
Mason Cooley
27.
Observe decorum, and it will open a path to morality.
Mason Cooley
28.
Promiscuity is like never reading past the first page. Monogamy is like reading the same book over and over.
Mason Cooley
29.
Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.
Mason Cooley
30.
To appear well dressed, be skinny and tall.
Mason Cooley
31.
Melancholy is as seductive as Ecstasy.
Mason Cooley
32.
Complainers change their complaints, but they never reduce the amount of time spent in complaining.
Mason Cooley
33.
A sense of blessedness comes from a change of heart, not from more blessings.
Mason Cooley
34.
Sulking is silent because speaking would reveal its folly.
Mason Cooley
35.
Why not - is a slogan for an interesting life.
Mason Cooley
36.
Forget what hurt you but never forget what it thaught you.
Mason Cooley
37.
Wisdom is founded on memory; happiness on forgetfulness.
Mason Cooley
38.
Regret for wasted time is more wasted time
Mason Cooley
39.
Masturbation is a democratic pleasure, practiced by rich and poor, young and old, married and single.
Mason Cooley
40.
Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.
Mason Cooley
41.
Lack of reciprocity ruins friendships, but makes love affairs exciting for a time.
Mason Cooley
42.
Nudity is the costume of lovers and corpses.
Mason Cooley
43.
Cats are inquisitive, but hate to admit it.
Mason Cooley
44.
A blocked path also offers guidance.
Mason Cooley
45.
The critical spirit never knows when to stop meddling.
Mason Cooley
46.
The philosophy of hedonism means little to lovers of pleasure. They have no inclination to read philosophy, or to write it.
Mason Cooley
47.
Telescopes and binoculars endanger the ever-distant sublime.
Mason Cooley
48.
Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.
Mason Cooley
49.
The passion for money is never fickle.
Mason Cooley
50.
I love you is the inscription on Pandora's box.
Mason Cooley