Charles Horton Cooley Quotes & Sayings

“Institutions - government, churches, industries, and the like - have properly no other function than to contribute to human freedom; and in so far as they fail, on the whole, to perform this function, they are wrong and need reconstruction.”

“An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.”

“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.”

“One should never criticize his own work except in a fresh and hopeful mood. The self-criticism of a tired mind is suicide.”

“Our individual lives cannot, generally, be works of art unless the social order is also.”

“As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquillity of the waters in which we see it.”

“A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.”

“To have no heroes is to have no aspiration, to live on the momentum of the past, to be thrown back upon routine, sensuality, and the narrow self.”

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

“A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail... Fluency, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.”