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

Mason Cooley

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

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Unlike the ambiguity of life, the ambiguity of language does reach a limit.
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Successful innovations become conventions.
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Humor does not rescue us from unhappiness, but enables us to move back from it a little.
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People are reluctant to cite boredom as grounds for divorce.
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Kafka: cries of helplessness in twenty powerful volumes.
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Don Juan tries not to see the skeptical winks that greet his boasting.
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I keep eating for fear I will be hungry.
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Acknowledge your limitations or they will tyrannize over you.
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Frivolous sorrow is folly. Frivolous enjoyment is not.
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When science drove the gods out of nature, they took refuge in poetry and the porticos of civic buildings.
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Advice is more agreeable in the mouth than in the ear.
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A: Everything changes. B: But not enough.
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Like love, destruction can be ecstatic.
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Envy grieves. Jealousy rages.
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When love and adventure are finished, it's nice to have getting and spending to fall back on.
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Change is upsetting. Repetition is tedious. Three cheers for variation!
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Thank God for the passing of the discomforts and vile cuisine of the age of chivalry!
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Most reputations are not ruined but forgotten.
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Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty-the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.
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