--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: If love closes, the self contracts and…" description: "\"If love closes, the self contracts and hardens: the mind having nothing else to occupy its attention and give it that change and renewal it requires, b..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3f/charles-horton-cooley-8362_arrogance_if-love-closes-the-self-contracts-and-ha_2344589.png" --- # If love closes, the self contracts and hardens: the mind… ![“If love closes, the self contracts and hardens: the mind having nothing else to occupy its attention and give it that change and renewal it requires, busies itself more and more with self-feeling, which takes on narrow and disgusting forms, like avarice, arrogance and fatuity.” quote by Charles Horton Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3f/charles-horton-cooley-8362_arrogance_if-love-closes-the-self-contracts-and-ha_2344589.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3f/charles-horton-cooley-8362_arrogance_if-love-closes-the-self-contracts-and-ha_2344589.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3f/charles-horton-cooley-8362_arrogance_if-love-closes-the-self-contracts-and-ha_2344589.png) > “If love closes, the self contracts and hardens: the mind having nothing else to occupy its attention and give it that change and renewal it requires, busies itself more and more with self-feeling, which takes on narrow and disgusting forms, like avarice, arrogance and fatuity.” [Charles Horton Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-horton-cooley/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. When love wanes, people turn inward, becoming self‑absorbed and developing negative traits like greed and arrogance. **In simple terms:** Loss of love leads to selfishness and bad behavior. Key Takeaway Cultivate love to prevent self‑centredness. Themes love self psychology social behavior negativity Mood reflective concerned critical Type sociological psychological When to use this quote - relationships - mental health counseling - personal development - conflict resolution Key Concepts self‑absorption egoism emotional health Questions to Reflect On - How does love influence your behavior? - What can replace love when it’s absent? A Different Perspective It simplifies complex social dynamics to a single cause. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Arrogance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arrogance/) [Attention](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/attention/) [Avarice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/avarice/) [Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change/) [Feelings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feelings/) [Giving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/giving/) [Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love/) [Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind/) [Psychology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychology/) [Renewal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/renewal/) [Self](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/self/) [Selfishness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/selfishness/) ## Related quotes > [When you're training every day, you kind of have to have the eye of the tiger. 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They have vanished before…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tecumseh/where-today-are-the-pequot-where-are-the-narragansett-the-mohican-the/) [Tecumseh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tecumseh/) > [The man who worships mere wealth is a snob.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-trollope/the-man-who-worships-mere-wealth-is-a-snob/) [Anthony Trollope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-trollope/) > [avarice breeds envy, a worm that is always gnawing, letting the avaricious enjoy neither their own nor anyone else's good.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/st-catherine-of-siena/avarice-breeds-envy-a-worm-that-is-always-gnawing-letting-the/) [St. Catherine of Siena](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/st-catherine-of-siena/) > [In our own time the whole of Greece has been subject to a low birth rate and a general decrease of the population, owing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/polybius/in-our-own-time-the-whole-of-greece-has-been-subject-to-a-low-birth/) [Polybius](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/polybius/) ## More by Charles Horton Cooley > [So far as discipline is concerned, freedom means not its absence but the use of higher and more rational forms as contrasted with those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-horton-cooley/so-far-as-discipline-is-concerned-freedom-means-not-its-absence-but/) [Charles Horton Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-horton-cooley/) > [To retire to the monastery, or the woods, or the sea, is to escape from the sharp suggestions that spur on ambition.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-horton-cooley/to-retire-to-the-monastery-or-the-woods-or-the-sea-is-to-escape-from/) [Charles Horton Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-horton-cooley/) > [Each man must have his I; it is more necessary to him than bread; and if he does not find scope for it within…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-horton-cooley/each-man-must-have-his-i-it-is-more-necessary-to-him-than-bread-and/) [Charles Horton Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-horton-cooley/) > [I is a militant social tendency, working to hold and enlarge its place in the general current of tendencies. 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