Quote

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.

Mason Cooley

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Mason Cooley
Age: 75 †
Born: 1927
Born: January 1
Died: 2002
Died: July 25
Aphorist
Father
Moralize
Earnest
Embarrassed
Pretend
Witty
Liked
Merely

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The mind scolds the heart, which makes excuses and goes its own way.
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When I get the point, I often don't know what to do with it.
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Electricity, water, gas, and steam course through the walls of my building, keeping it alive.
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Fantasy mirrors desire. Imagination reshapes it.
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The educated do not share a common body of information, but a common state of mind.
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Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is.
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The cues that arouse desire are changed by Fashion, but feel like the proddings of Nature.
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Art seduces, but does not exploit.
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Beauty compels us reason merely cajoles.
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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.
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Paradox implies that stating a contradiction disposes of it.
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The hysterical find too much significance in things. The depressed find too little.
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In the labyrinth of a difficult text, we find unmarked forks in the path, detours, blind alleys, loops that deliver us back to our point of entry, and finally the monster who whispers an unintelligible truth in our ears.
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Our punning minds rejoin what logic has separated.
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The man of sensibility is too busy talking about his feelings to have time for good deeds.
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Chastity is now treated as a sexual problem.
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I have a special grudge against those who have the same faults as I do.
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Wisdom knows when to return death's embrace.
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The dignified catastrophes of tragedy bear little resemblance to the slow ruin inflicted by life.
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