"The need to exert power, when thwarted in the open fields of life, is the more likely to assert itself in trifles"
About this Quote
Cooley wrote as an early American sociologist, obsessed with how the self is built from social feedback. Read through that lens, “trifles” aren’t random; they’re the micro-stages where people perform competence when larger stages deny them. The coworker who polices punctuation, the neighbor who weaponizes HOA bylaws, the bureaucrat who demands one more form - these aren’t just personalities. They’re social positions seeking compensation, a way to restore face and soothe the ache of being overlooked.
The subtext is also institutional. When a culture narrows legitimate routes to agency - through class barriers, rigid hierarchies, or humiliating labor - it doesn’t eliminate the drive for power. It redistributes it downward into everyday life, where it becomes hardest to name and easiest to excuse as “just being thorough.” Cooley’s line anticipates modern micromanagement and petty authoritarianism: domination scaled to the size of a clipboard.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cooley, Charles Horton. (2026, January 15). The need to exert power, when thwarted in the open fields of life, is the more likely to assert itself in trifles. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-need-to-exert-power-when-thwarted-in-the-open-21611/
Chicago Style
Cooley, Charles Horton. "The need to exert power, when thwarted in the open fields of life, is the more likely to assert itself in trifles." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-need-to-exert-power-when-thwarted-in-the-open-21611/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The need to exert power, when thwarted in the open fields of life, is the more likely to assert itself in trifles." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-need-to-exert-power-when-thwarted-in-the-open-21611/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
