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."
When understanding would be too difficult, I become trusting.
After a moment of shrinking back, we domesticate the grotesque.
The aphorism is a slippery plaything.
The realism of failure, the romance of success.
Don't tell me it's raining when you're peeing on me!
Happiness is often hard-hearted.
Ideology has shaped the very sofa on which I sit.
Love Songs Now: Fewer broken hearts, more sexual misery.
The ironies in the commonplace are my inspiration and delight.
The trouble with the young people today is that it is they who are young.
Envy awakens at the sound of a distant laugh.
Proverbial wisdom counsels against risk and change. But sitting ducks fare worst of all.
Reality is the name we give to our disappointments.
Who would not give up wit for power and beauty?
Sex is not imaginary, but it is not quite real either.
Only the strong and the hopeful are able to revolt.
Writing is a refuge from unhappiness, but has its own sorrows.
God may be a human creation, but He goes His way, not ours.
In describing someone's character, I reveal my own.
Spirituality now wanders from sex to drugs to art to revolution to violence--whatever seems to promise deliverance from the quotidian.