Quote

Rule of criticism: only attend to the shape, and the purpose will manifest itself.

Mason Cooley

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Mason Cooley
Age: 75 †
Born: 1927
Born: January 1
Died: 2002
Died: July 25
Aphorist
Attend
Manifest
Shape
Criticism
Rule
Shapes
Purpose

More quotes by Mason Cooley

Image
A moment of eloquence enthralls us. An hour's worth leaves us stupefied.
Mason Cooley
Image
Eccentricity: strength of character doubling back on itself.
Mason Cooley
Image
Self-hatred is sometimes appropriate.
Mason Cooley
Image
Expensive advertising courts us with hints and images. The ordinary kind merely says, Buy.
Mason Cooley
Image
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.
Mason Cooley
Image
I did not know I was in my prime until afterwards.
Mason Cooley
Image
A restaurant with candles and flowers evokes more reveries than the Isle of Bali does.
Mason Cooley
Image
The meaning of today will not be clear until tomorrow.
Mason Cooley
Image
People are reluctant to cite boredom as grounds for divorce.
Mason Cooley
Image
General statements omit what we really want to know. Example: some horses run faster than others.
Mason Cooley
Image
Was there a little time between the invention of language and the coming of true and false?
Mason Cooley
Image
No matter how close thought sticks to the actual, it follows its own rules.
Mason Cooley
Image
The young have stolen our youthfulness, and flaunt it without shame.
Mason Cooley
Image
The nonsense that charms is close to sense.
Mason Cooley
Image
A dense undergrowth of extension cords sustains my upper world of lights, music, and machines of comfort.
Mason Cooley
Image
Documents create a paper reality we call proof.
Mason Cooley
Image
I have learned to keep to myself how exceptional I am.
Mason Cooley
Image
Every doctrine has a theory of the beginning.
Mason Cooley
Image
No one can remember himself as an unpleasant child.
Mason Cooley
Image
Asceticism and celibacy can conceal many incapacities.
Mason Cooley