Irving Goffman

"We use strategic ambiguity to maintain relationships despite contradictory or conflicting roles."

"The other is always more than we can fully know; interaction bridges an unbridgeable gap."

"Public behavior is constrained by an invisible audience even in the absence of actual observers."

"Identity maintenance requires constant vigilance and adjustment to changing social circumstances."

"Institutional life reveals that the self is not impervious but vulnerable to organizational assault."

"We attribute authenticity to performances that are entirely constructed for social consumption."

"The individual is not to himself the solid, definitely outlined, clearly articulated, objective thing which he takes himself to be."

"We are all actors, but some of us are more aware of it than others."

"The presentation of self in everyday life is a constant negotiation between who we are and who we appear to be."

"Every person lives for the approbation of others."

"Our sense of being a person can come from being drawn into a wider social unit."

"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory answer is simply the repetition of the question."

"When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information or to bring into play information about him."

"We are not honest liars; we lie to ourselves constantly about ourselves."

"Face-work is an attribute that is thought to be inherent in the person, as a rule."

"The interaction order is the fundamental order of social organization."

"Recognition of an individual's self is not established for him by birth, but created afresh."

"A person's performance of self requires careful management of impressions."

"The more closely the members of a group are bound together, the more effort they seem willing to invest."

"We engage in the process of impression management whether we like it or not."

"Our identities are performed, not possessed."

"The self is not something that is born with the individual; it develops in the course of his social experience."

"To live is to engage in a perpetual renegotiation of reality with others."

"We are all capable of deceiving ourselves more thoroughly than we can deceive others."

"The mask is the reality; there is no 'real self' beneath it."

"Encounters involve the management of expressions and the regulation of behavior."

"Social life requires the suspension of disbelief about each other's performances."

"We perform roles, and the line between performance and reality becomes increasingly blurred."

"Stigma is not the attribute itself but our reaction to it."

"The audience must be convinced to accept the performer's definition of the situation."