List of Charles Horton Cooley Quotes

Simplicity Is A Pleasant Thing In Children, Or At Any Age, But It Is Not Necessarily Admirable, Nor Is Affectation Altogether A Thing Of Evil. To Be Normal, To Be At Home In The World, With A Prospect Of Power, Usefulness, Or Success, The Person Must Have That Imaginative Insight Into Other Minds That Underlies Tact And Savoir-faire, Morality And Beneficence. This Insight Involves Sophistication, Some Understanding And Sharing Of The Clandestine Impulses Of Human Nature. A Simplicity That Is Merely The Lack Of This Insight Indicates A Sort Of Defect.

A Person Of Mature Years And Ripe Development, Who Is Expecting Nothing From Literature But The Corroboration And Renewal Of Past Ideas, May Find Satisfaction In A Lucidity So Complete As To Occasion No Imaginative Excitement, But Young And Ambitious Students Are Not Content With It. They Seek The Excitement Because They Are Capable Of The Growth That It Accompanies.

It Is Partly To Avoid Consciousness Of Greed That We Prefer To Associate With Those Who Are At Least As Greedy As We Ourselves. Those Who Consume Much Less Are A Reproach.

In Most Cases A Favorite Writer Is More With Us In His Book Than He Ever Could Have Been In The Flesh; Since, Being A Writer, He Is One Who Has Studied And Perfected This Particular Mode Of Personal Incarnation, Very Likely To The Detriment Of Any Other. I Should Like As A Matter Of Curiosity To See And Hear For A Moment The Men Whose Works I Admire; But I Should Hardly Expect To Find Further Intercourse Particularly Profitable.

One Of The Great Reasons For The Popularity Of Strikes Is That They Give The Suppressed Self A Sense Of Power. For Once The Human Tool Knows Itself A Man, Able To Stand Up And Speak A Word Or Strike A Blow.

The Bashful Are Always Aggressive At Heart.

Could Anything Be More Indicative Of A Slight But General Insanity Than The Aspect Of The Crowd On The Streets Of Chicago?

By Recognizing A Favorable Opinion Of Yourself, And Taking Pleasure In It, You In A Measure Give Yourself And Your Peace Of Mind Into The Keeping Of Another, Of Whose Attitude You Can Never Be Certain. You Have A New Source Of Doubt And Apprehension.

A Person Of Definite Character And Purpose Who Comprehends Our Way Of Thought Is Sure To Exert Power Over Us. He Cannot Altogether Be Resisted; Because, If He Understands Us, He Can Make Us Understand Him, Through The Word, The Look, Or Other Symbol.

So Far As Discipline Is Concerned, Freedom Means Not Its Absence But The Use Of Higher And More Rational Forms As Contrasted With Those That Are Lower Or Less Rational.

We Cannot Feel Strongly Toward The Totally Unlike Because It Is Unimaginable, Unrealizable; Nor Yet Toward The Wholly Like Because It Is Stale - Identity Must Always Be Dull Company. The Power Of Other Natures Over Us Lies In A Stimulating Difference Which Causes Excitement And Opens Communication, In Ideas Similar To Our Own But Not Identical, In States Of Mind Attainable But Not Actual.

Selfishness Of The Stable Or Rigid Sort Is As A Rule More Bitterly Resented Than The More Fickle Variety, Chiefly, No Doubt, Because, Having More Continuity And Purpose, It Is More Formidable.