Mason Cooley

“Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.”

“Middle age went by while I was mourning for my lost youth.”

“Living alone makes it harder to find someone to blame.”

“Amazing that the human race has taken enough time out from thinking about food or sex to create the arts and sciences.”

“Lying just for the fun of it is either art or pathology.”

“If you are going to break a Law of Art, make the crime interesting.”

“Art seduces, but does not exploit.”

“A sense of blessedness comes from a change of heart, not from more blessings.”

“In every death, a busy world comes to an end.”

“As equality increases, so does the number of people struggling for predominance.”

“I read less and less. I have not forgiven books for their failure to tell me the truth and make me happy.”

“Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.”

“Faith moves mountains, but you have to keep pushing while you are praying.”

“Bad faith likes discourse on friendship and loyalty.”

“Cruelty is softened by fear, not pity.”

“While there's life, there's fear.”

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

“Taste refers to the past, imagination to the future.”

“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”

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

“Romance is tempestuous. Love is calm.”

“Money: power at its most liquid.”

“Sincerity: willingness to spend one's own money.”

“Kindness eases everything almost as much as money does.”