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Charles Horton Cooley

Charles Horton Cooley Quotes

Sociologist

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Famous Charles Horton Cooley Quotes

“If the man succeeds in becoming indifferent to the opinions of his neighbors he runs into another danger, that of a distorted and extravagant self of the pride sort, since by the very process of gaining independence and immunity from the stings of depreciation and misunderstanding, he has perhaps lost that wholesome deference to some social tribunal that a man cannot dispense with and remain quite sane.”

IfsMenSelfRunningLostSocialProcessOpinionDangerHe ManPrideBecomingSucceedIndependenceNeighborSaneIndifferentMisunderstandingExtravagantImmunityDeferenceTribunalsDepreciation
Book:Human Nature and the Social Order
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“There is perhaps no sort of self more subject to dangerous egotism than that which deludes itself with the notion that it is not a self at all, but something else. It is well to beware of persons who believe that the cause, the mission, the philanthropy, the hero, or whatever it may be that they strive for, is outside of themselves, so that they feel a certain irresponsibility, and are likely to do things which they would recognize as wrong if done in behalf of an acknowledged self.”

IfsFeelsBelieveWellsMayPersonsSelfDoneCertainCausesSubjectsDangerousHeroStriveNotionMissionsPhilanthropyBehalfEgotismIrresponsibility
Author:Charles Horton Cooley
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“It happens from time to time in every complex and active society, that certain persons feel the complexity and insistence as a tangle, and seek freedom in retirement, as Thoreau sought at Walden Pond. They do not, however, in this manner escape from the social institutions of their time, nor do they really mean to do so; what they gain, if they are successful, is a saner relation to them.”

IfsFeelsMeanPersonsHappensCertainSocialSuccessfulGainsRelationInstitutionsComplexesActiveComplexityRetirementReally MeanPondsInsistenceSocial InstitutionsWalden Pond
Book:Human Nature and the Social Order
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“In the days of witchcraft it used to be believed that if one person secretly made a waxen image of another and stuck pins into the image, its counterpart would suffer tortures, and that if the image was melted the person would die. This superstition is almost realized in the relation between the private self and its social reflection. They seem to separate but are darkly united, and what is done to the one is done to the other.”

IfsPersonsMadeSelfDoneSeemsUsedSufferingDiesSocialUnitedReflectionRelationStuckUsed To BeTortureSuperstitionsPinsWitchcraftCounterparts
Book:Human Nature and the Social Order
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“It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in general. The farmer philosophizes in terms of crops, soils, markets, and implements, the mechanic generalizes his experiences of wood and iron, the seaman reaches similar conclusions by his own special road; and if the scholar keeps pace with these it must be by an equally virile productivity.”

IfsKnowsMenMatterTermViewsCommonOne ThingSpecialWoodsHearingProductivityConclusionObservationSoilIronFarmersPaceScholarMechanicCropsSeamen
Book:Two Major Works: Social Organization. Human Nature and the Social Order
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“When one has come to accept a certain course as duty he has a pleasant sense of relief and of lifted responsibility, even if the course involves pain and renunciation. It is like obedience to some external authority; any clear way, though it lead to death, is mentally preferable to the tangle of uncertainty.”

IfsWayPainCertainCoursesResponsibilityAcceptingClearDutyAuthorityObedienceUncertaintyPleasantReliefRenunciation
Book:Human Nature and the Social Order
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