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 Cooley More Quotes by Charles Horton Cooley More Quotes From Charles Horton Cooley 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 Cooley attitude giving peace 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. Charles Horton Cooley iron views men 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. Charles Horton Cooley pain hypocrite character The chief misery of the decline of the faculties, and a main cause of the irritability that often goes with it, is evidently the isolation, the lack of customary appreciation and influence, which only the rarest tact and thoughtfulness on the part of others can alleviate. Charles Horton Cooley misery causes appreciation If youth is the period of hero-worship, so also is it true that hero-worship, more than anything else, perhaps, gives one the sense of youth. To admire, to expand one's self, to forget the rut, to have a sense of newness and life and hope, is to feel young at any time of life. Charles Horton Cooley self hero giving 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. Charles Horton Cooley reading book past Could anything be more indicative of a slight but general insanity than the aspect of the crowd on the streets of Chicago? Charles Horton Cooley crowds chicago insanity To cease to admire is a proof of deterioration. Charles Horton Cooley deterioration admiration aggravation The actual God of many Americans... is simply the current of American life. Charles Horton Cooley american-life currents Kindliness seems to exist primarily as an animal instinct, so deeply rooted that mental degeneracy, which works from the top down,does not destroy it until the mind sinks to the lower grades of idiocy. Charles Horton Cooley top-down kindness animal When we hate a person, with an intimate, imaginative, human hatred, we enter into his mind, or sympathize -- any strong interest will arouse the imagination and create some sort of sympathy. Charles Horton Cooley hate strong imagination The idea of freedom is quite in accord with a general, though vague, sentiment among us; it is an idea of fair play, of giving everyone a chance; and nothing arouses more general and active indignation among our people than the belief that some one or some class is not getting a fair chance. Charles Horton Cooley play class ideas The idea that seeing life means going from place to place and doing a great variety of obvious things is an illusion natural to dull minds. Charles Horton Cooley life mean travel 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. Charles Horton Cooley consumerism greed consciousness 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. Charles Horton Cooley matter views men There is hardly any one so insignificant that he does not seem imposing to some one at some time. Charles Horton Cooley imposing seems doe To retire to the monastery, or the woods, or the sea, is to escape from the sharp suggestions that spur on ambition. Charles Horton Cooley spurs ambition sea The general fact is that the most effective way of utilizing human energy is through an organized rivalry, which by specialization and social control is, at the same time, organized co-operation. Charles Horton Cooley control energy time way
