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As we see our face, figure, and dress in the glass, and are interested in them because they are ours, and pleased or otherwise with them according as they do or do not answer to what we should like them to be; so in imagination we perceive in another's mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so on, and are variously affected by it.

— Charles Cooley

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More quotes by Charles Cooley

The social self is simply any idea, or system of ideas, drawn from the communicative life, that the mind cherishes as its own.

Strong joy and grief depend upon the treatment this rudimentary social self receives.

A separate individual is an abstraction unknown to experience, and so likewise is society when regarded as something apart from individuals.

As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquillity of the waters in which we see it.

To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Cooley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.