Charles Cooley

"The human mind is shaped by culture and society."

"We must learn to see ourselves as we appear to others."

"The self is not a fixed entity but a fluid process."

"In understanding others, we understand ourselves."

"The power of social influence begins in childhood."

"The self is not something ready made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action."

"I am not who I think I am, and I am not who you think I am; I am who I think you think I am."

"A person is not hurt so much by what he doesn't know, as by what he knows that just ain't so."

"The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society."

"If we live for others' approval, we live for others."

"The true social contact is not a contract, but a sentiment."

"We live in our imaginations and in our memories, and in nothing else."

"The growth of the mind is the feeding of the imagination."

"A person cannot grow unless he is willing to be wrong."

"The principal problem of life is the conflict between individuality and conformity."

"Pride is a personal matter; it concerns only the individual, his honor and reputation."

"We wish to be esteemed for what we are; we die rather than concede."

"Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to invention and to action."

"The power of the imagination makes us infinite."

"You cannot do wrong and feel right; neither can you do right and feel wrong."

"The real self is something we are always becoming."

"Life is not something to be lived; it is something to be experienced."

"We are mirrors to one another, reflecting back what we see."

"The self is fundamentally a matter of social organization."

"Time is the currency of life; spend it wisely."

"To understand others, we must first understand ourselves."

"The looking-glass self is the essence of human nature."

"Our sense of self grows from how we imagine others perceive us."

"Imagination is the beginning of creation."

"In solitude we find ourselves; in company we lose ourselves."