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.
Charles Horton CooleyRead
If we divine a discrepancy between a man's words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of consistency between a person's words and their character.
Charles Horton Cooley expresses that when there is a mismatch between what a person says and who they truly are, it creates a fractured perception of that individual. This dissonance not only detracts from their positive attributes but also leads to a painful evaluation by others, as people struggle to reconcile their contradictory nature.
Themes
IntegrityConsistencyCharacterCommunicationPerception
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the value of authenticity in leadership.
More from Charles Horton Cooley
All quotes →We have no higher life that is really apart from other people. It is by imagining them that our personality is built up; to be without the power of imagining them is to be a low-grade idiot.
Charles Horton CooleyRead
The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society.
Charles Horton CooleyRead
Each man must have his I; it is more necessary to him than bread; and if he does not find scope for it within the existing institutions he will be likely to make trouble.
Charles Horton CooleyRead
The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves but the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind.
Charles Horton CooleyRead
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.
Charles Horton CooleyRead
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