Erving Goffman Society Quotes & Sayings

You can't change people but you can effect a change in them by your behavior. — Garrison Wynn

In our society, defecation involves an
individual in activity which is defined as inconsistent with
the cleanliness and purity standards expressed in many of our
performances. Such activity also causes the individual to
disarrange his clothing and to 'go out of play, that is, to
drop from his face the expressive mask that he employs in
face-to-face interaction. At the same time ic becomes difficult
for him to reassemble his personal front should the need to
enter into interaction suddenly occur. Perhaps that is a
reason why toilet doors in our society have locks on them. — Erving Goffman

When persons are present to one another they can function not merely as physical instruments but also as communicative ones. This possibility, no less than the physical one, is fateful for everyone concerned and in every society appears to come under strict normative regulation, giving rise to a kind of communication traffic order ... — Erving Goffman

But I fear that I also underestimate the stupidity of the rest of mankind. Are we absolutely sure that we ought to win this war? — Orson Scott Card

This is your chance. Are you going to cower and make excuses or are you going to do what you really want to do? — S.A. Tawks

Society is an insane asylum ran by the inmates. — Erving Goffman

Niagara. Used to be a place honeymooners would go. Maybe you seen some movies. All this water, pouring over the cliffs, a thousand rivers falling down all at once, like somehow there was a mistake in the crust of the earth and someone had taken away half of a lakebed. And the force of it, water against water, so strong you can feel the spray on your cheeks a half a mile distant. I never seen anything like it. See, that's the kind of thing that just keeps on going, century after century, no matter what us puny humans are doin all a-scurry over the surface of the earth. — Alden Bell

As he waited for her, he braced himself for the sight of her, ready to turn out the light as soon as she reached her bed.
But when Daniela came in, she wasn't wearing her nightgown. She returned from the bathroom in a bath towel. And then she locked the door behind her and dropped the towel. Drops of water glistened on her naked skin as if she'd been painted with diamonds.
"Christ," he breathed. — Dana Marton

The existence of a different value system among these persons is evinced by the communality of behavior which occurs when illiterates interact among themselves. Not only do they change from unexpressive and confused individuals, as they frequently appear in larger society, to expressive and understanding persons within their own group, but moreover they express themselves in institutional terms. Among themselves they have a universe of response. They form and recognize symbols of prestige and disgrace; evaluate relevant situations in terms of their own norms and in their own idiom: and in their interrelations with one another, the mask of accommodative adjustment drops. — Erving Goffman

I think that being a conscious parent opens your eyes to the fact that any adult relationships that you have, whenever children are present on a daily basis, that they're modeling how they get along with people by what they see how you get along. — Peter Krause

Society is organized on the principle that any individual who possesses certain social characteristics has a moral right to expect that others will value and treat him in an appropriate way. — Erving Goffman

When an individual becomes over-involved in a topic of conversation, others are drawn from the talk to the talker. One man's eagerness is another man's alienation. Readiness to become over-involved is a form of tyranny practiced by children, prima donnas and lords, placing feelings above moral rules that should have made society safe for interaction. — Erving Goffman