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If failure or disgrace arrives, if one suddenly finds that the faces of men show coldness or contempt instead of the kindliness and deference that he is used to, he will perceive from the shock, the fear, the sense of being outcast and helpless, that he was living in the minds of others without knowing it, just as we daily walk the solid ground without thinking how it bears us up.

— 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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Attribution

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.