Talk about yourself as much as you like, but do not expect others to listen.
— Mason Cooley
Fail, and your friends feel superior. Succeed, and they feel resentful.
Logic and fact keep interfering with the easy flow of conversation.
Opportunity knocks, but doesn't always answer to its name.
Children now expect their parents to audition for approval.
Seeing my malevolent face in the mirror, my benevolent soul shrinks back.
Who would not give up wit for power and beauty?
Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening.
Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is.
My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet.
A real idea keeps changing and appears in many places.
In psychoanalysis, only the fee is exactly what it seems to be.
Thinking about the universe has now been handed over to specialists. The rest of us merely read about it.
Three meals plus bedtime make four sure blessings a day.
The lonely become either thoughtful or empty.
Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking.
Ultimately, blind faith is the only kind.
Most people regard getting their way as a matter of simple justice.
After an argument, silence may mean acceptance or the continuation of resistance by other means.
Listening to people keeps them entertained.
My parents wanted me to solace them for sorrows they denied having had.
Cynicism is full of naive disappointments.
Fulfillment is often more trouble than it is worth.
Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.
First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory.
Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.
Malice is always authentic and sincere.
Well-behaved: he always speaks as if his mother might be listening.
If we think about the obvious long enough, it dissolves.
My thought has been shaped by books; my desires by pictures.
What lies behind appearance is usually another appearance.
Taste refers to the past, imagination to the future.
Even the most fickle are faithful to a few bad habits.
To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.
Hatred observes with more care than love does.
Women encourage men to be childish, then scold them.
Children use all their wiles to get their way with adults. Adults do the same with children.
Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.
When a man bores a woman, she complains. When a woman bores a man, he ignores her.
As equality increases, so does the number of people struggling for predominance.
Preserving tradition has become a nice hobby, like stamp collecting.
Few artists can afford artistic temperament.
Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.
Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.
The higher the moral tone, the more suspect the speaker.
When sages commend excess, Desire is sick.
Self-reform is the only kind that works.
The novel avoids the sublime and seeks out the interesting.
Only the broken-hearted know the truth about love.
While we are reading, we are all Don Quixote.
