Mason Cooley (1927 – July 25, 2002) was an American aphorist known for his witty aphorisms. One of these such aphorisms Cooley developed was "The time I kill is killing me."
We worship the aesthetic, but we do not have faith in it.
Ideology has shaped the very sofa on which I sit.
Losing gracefully is commended but never chosen.
Like other high subjects, the Law gives no ground to common sense.
Show enough regret, and your refusal will inspire gratitude.
The horse stares at its captor, barely remembering the free kicks of youth.
When money disappears, we soon understand the power of absence.
Elegance thrives on exclusion.
Always clamping down on excitement is not self-control but fear.
The lion cares less about being king of the beasts than about finding his dinner.
My young friend supposes his ingenuousness is merely a ruse.
To learn a vocation, you also have to learn the frauds it practices and the promises it breaks.
After ages of bombast, the rhetoric of virtue has become ironic and shy.
Winning means outlasting everyone else.
Victimization has its privileges, and I want some.
Without asceticism, self-indulgence would be insignificant.
Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.
Against classical philosophy: thinking about eternity or the immensity of the universe does not lessen my unhappiness.
Power makes gods. Virtue makes martyrs.
Like love, grief fades in and out.