Mason Cooley Quotes

Confidence quickly curdles into arrogance; smarts turn to smugness, charm turns to smarm.

Be careful of success; it has a dark side.

Success can set the table for tragedy if the victors are not careful.

We thought because we had power, we had wisdom.

A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That's not a guess, it's a guarantee. With pride, it's not a matter of 'if' we will fall, but 'when.' There are no exceptions.

Thinking you're a genius is death.

The minute I get a big head and start acting like the big man on campus, it's all downhill from there.

Pride and excess bring disaster for man.

Self-conceit may lead to self destruction.

The deepest thing in any one is the conviction of the bad luck that follows boasting.

The worst thing you could ever get is people who think they know everything.

They are most deceived that trusteth most in themselves.

National glory is a deceiving seducer. When it reaches a certain height, it clasps the head with an iron band. The enclosed sees nothing in the mist but his own picture; he is susceptible to no foreign impressions.

Success can breed all kinds of other behavior and cause companies to behave a certain way that isn't necessarily the ingredients for achieving more success. For instance, with success comes arrogance, and that's typically the death of success.

When I'm considering an idea, and there is an element of hubris involved, I generally feel comfortable that it's going to be a good story. Pride goeth before a fall. It's an element of a lot of big stories.

The minute you start believing your own success, you're on the road to ruin.

Beware of being blinded by your own success.

There is a danger in believing your own hype.

When as smart as you think you are is as wrong as you turn out to be, your life can fall out from under you.

You have seen in football that if you start to think you are the 'Special One,' or that you are better than the others, that is the moment when you will be beaten.

I think once you start to think that you're the man, and you know it all, and your style is unbeatable and stuff like that, that's when you get caught and clipped and get humbled really fast.

Arrogance always destroys opportunity

There was one who thought himself above me, and he was above me until he had that thought.

Those that know the least of others think the highest of themselves.