Mason Cooley

“Women encourage men to be childish, then scold them.”

“Rescue someone unwilling to look after himself, and he will cling to you like a dangerous illness.”

“In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same.”

“Preserving tradition has become a nice hobby, like stamp collecting.”

“Outside books, we avoid colorful characters.”

“When sages commend excess, Desire is sick.”

“Complainers change their complaints, but they never reduce the amount of time spent in complaining.”

“Often, when I want to consult my impulses, I cannot find them.”

“Expensive advertising courts us with hints and images. The ordinary kind merely says, Buy.”

“Moo may represent an idea, but only the cow knows.”

“I'm being treated like a sex object, cried the lady. No matter. I will take care of it, said Time soothingly.”

“Kafka: cries of helplessness in twenty powerful volumes.”

“Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.”

“Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.”

“Reputation runs behind the current state of affairs.”

“Hypocrisy is the outside of cynicism.”

“Cynicism is full of naive disappointments.”

“Observe decorum, and it will open a path to morality.”

“For many, immaturity is an ideal, not a defect.”

“The aim of literary ambition is to demonstrate one's greatness of soul.”