Quotes by Erving Goffman

20 quotes    

The world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
 
Everyday life is a performance, and we are all actors on its stage.
 
Life is a game, and we are all playing it according to certain rules.
 
In every social encounter, we manage the impressions we make on others.
 
We are simultaneously the performers and the audience of our own lives.
 
Social interaction is a complex dance in which each of us negotiates our public self.
 
The way we behave in public is often very different from the way we behave in private.
 
The line between normality and deviance is a social construct, not a natural category.
 
Our identity is not a stable essence, but an ongoing project of presentation and performance.
 
Stigma is not a fixed attribute but a process through which a person is discredited by society.
 
The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choices of action.
 
The front stage is where we adhere to expected roles, while the backstage is where we can be ourselves.
 
We all perform roles in the theater of everyday life, constantly adjusting our masks to suit the audience.
 
Impression management is the art of ensuring that the image we project aligns with our desired social identity.
 
We are all trying to make a good impression on others, but we are also trying to avoid making a bad impression.
 
The most socially significant events in life are the ones that are ritually bracketed and framed, i.e., ceremonies.
 
We are all actors on a stage, and we must present ourselves in a way that is appropriate to the role we are playing.
 
The self is not a stable entity, but rather a performance that is constantly being negotiated and redefined through interactions with others.
 
Individuals commonly try to prevent the occurrence of incidents and the uncovering of troubles. When these do occur, individuals are thrown into remedial action.
 
All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which we adapt to and manage the precarious aspects of our social life resemble stage performances.
 
20 quotes