# Quote — Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

> When an individual appears before others, he wittingly and unwittingly projects a definition of the situation, of which a conception of himself is an important part. When an event occurs which is expressively incompatible with this fostered impression, significant consequences are simultaneously felt in three levels of social reality, each of which involves a different point of reference and a different order of fact.

- Author: [Erving Goffman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erving-goffman.md)
- Book: [The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erving-goffman/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life.md)
- Page: 155
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erving_Goffman#The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life,_1959) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/erving-goffman/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life/when-an-individual

## More from this book

> 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.

p. 13 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erving-goffman/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life/society-is-organized.md)

> The degree that the individual maintains a show before others that he himself does not believe, he can come to experience a special kind of alienation from self and a special kind of wariness of others.

p. 229 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erving-goffman/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life/the-degree-that.md)

> In recent years there have been elaborate attempts to bring into one framework the concepts and findings derived from three different areas of inquiry: the individual personality, social interaction, and society. I would like to suggest here a simple addition to these inter-disciplinary attempts.

p. 155 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erving-goffman/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life/in-recent-years.md)