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
The literature of the inner life is very largely a record of struggle with the inordinate passions of the social self.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the internal conflict individuals face due to societal expectations and desires.
Charles Horton Cooley suggests that a significant part of our inner experiences revolves around battling the excessive desires and impulses that arise from our social identity. We often struggle with the expectations placed on us by society and our own passions, highlighting the tension between our true selves and the persona we present to the world.
Themes
Inner LifeStruggleSocial SelfPassionsIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about mental health at a community event.
More from Charles Horton Cooley
All quotes βIf 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.
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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.
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The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society.
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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.
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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
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