"It is to be expected that voluntary maintenance of various types of distance will be employed strategically by those who pass, the discreditable here using much the same devices as do the discredited, but for slightly different reasons. By declining or avoiding overtures of intimacy the individual can avoid the consequent obligation to divulge information. By keeping relationships distant he ensures that time will not have to be spent with the other, for, as already stated, the more time that is spent with another the more chance of unanticipated events that disclose secrets."
Erving Goffman

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

Ch.2 - p.122

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erving_Goffman