David Riesman

"The price of belonging is the loss of self-knowledge."

"Modern anxiety is not fear of punishment but fear of irrelevance."

"The crowd is comforting precisely because it absolves us of responsibility."

"We read faces and tones as carefully as our ancestors read omens."

"The gyroscope has been replaced by the thermometer, measuring external temperature."

"In seeking approval, we forfeit the possibility of genuine self-discovery."

"The modern person is a mirror reflecting the expectations of others."

"We have become strangers to our own desires and wishes."

"The autonomous person is increasingly viewed as selfish or maladjusted."

"Loneliness is the consequence of trading tradition for conformity."

"The other-directed person feels genuine emotion about their conformity."

"We mistake adjustment for maturity and adaptation for growth."

"The tyranny of the majority is felt most acutely in the mind of each individual."

"Modern society offers unprecedented freedom while demanding unprecedented conformity."

"The person who knows themselves is increasingly an outsider."

"We are all casting for the role that will make us most acceptable."

"The inner-directed person's greatest weakness is their independence."

"Authority has shifted from the parent within to the crowd without."

"Happiness becomes impossible when it is made dependent on others' approval."

"The modern person is perpetually on stage, with no backstage to retreat to."

"We have lost the ability to be alone without feeling abandoned."

"Tradition provided answers; peers provide only mirrors."

"The radar within us never ceases its scanning for signs of approval."

"Conformity is the modern virtue, authenticity the modern vice."

"The inner-directed person is a historical relic in the age of other-direction."

"We mistake the absence of conflict for the presence of peace."

"The modern person is a consumer of identity as much as of products."

"In the crowd, we are safe from the burden of being ourselves."

"The voice of tradition has been replaced by the noise of opinion."

"Character is now something to be managed rather than developed."