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Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one's behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.

Mason Cooley

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Mason Cooley
Age: 75 †
Born: 1927
Born: January 1
Died: 2002
Died: July 25
Aphorist
Likely
Behavior
Sports
Reading
Make
Improve
Ethics
Athlete

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Style disdains comfort and is always ready to sacrifice virtue.
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Telescopes and binoculars endanger the ever-distant sublime.
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My father liked to moralize, and so do I. But he was in earnest, while I am embarrassed and pretend that I am merely being witty.
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The ironies in the commonplace are my inspiration and delight.
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Unlike art and sex, money always arouses interest.
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If I had found the words I was looking for, I would not have read so much.
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Unhappiness is too common to call for special measures.
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When I try to portray to myself my heart's desire, nothing happens.
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Power makes gods. Virtue makes martyrs.
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I love you is the inscription on Pandora's box.
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I keep renaming my motives, but continue doing the same things.
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Life is struggle and sleep.
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Thought enables us to see Fate coming.
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Old age learns about less after a lifetime of more.
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After a moment of shrinking back, we domesticate the grotesque.
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Narcissus weeps to find that his Image does not return his love.
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Being cultured is the least expensive form of respectability.
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Imprudence gets us into more trouble than actual misdeeds do.
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Sacred or not, sacrifice is an ugly business.
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