Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" In our society, the ideal self is bold, gregarious, and comfortable in the spotlight. We like to think that we value individuality, but mostly we admire the type of individual who's comfortable 'putting himself out there.' "

Related Quotes:

" It's never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population. We discovered this with women decades ago, and now it's time to realize it with introverts. "

Susan Cain

Way

Time

Women

" You can't pick up a business magazine ever without seeing the word 'collaborate' splashed all over it. I think people are probably feeling assaulted by the need to always be on and always be interacting. "

" I'm not saying abolish group work - I think there's a time and a place for people to come together and exchange ideas, but let's restore the respect we once had for solitude. And we need to be much more mindful of the way we come together. "

" You will find this hard to believe, but I've never laughed as much as I did when I was a corporate lawyer. When you're working 16 hours a day for months at a time, you get punchy. Everything and everyone seems hilarious. "

" Men are more likely to be introverted than women are, but it's really very slight. But the real difference I think is in how it plays out, how it relates to cultural stereotypes. "

" We need to do teacher training to educate them about what temperament means. Shyness is painful and you want to help a child with shyness - but the underlying temperament of being a careful, sensitive person is to be honoured, valued and respected. "

" Shyness is inherently uncomfortable; introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree. "

" The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness. "

" Many people believe that introversion is about being antisocial, and that's really a misperception. Because actually it's just that introverts are differently social. So they would prefer to have a glass of wine with a close friend as opposed to going to a loud party full of strangers. "

" Even when the attention focused on me is positive, I am uncomfortable being looked at by a lot of people - it's just not my natural state of being. "

Susan Cain

Attention

I Am

" A widely held, but rarely articulated, belief in our society is that the ideal self is bold, alpha, gregarious. Introversion is viewed somewhere between disappointment and pathology. "

" I've never given a speech without being terrified first. "

" I'm insatiably curious about human nature. "

" One thing I'm hearing a lot is from teachers who have felt that there's something wrong with the extreme group learning, but felt like they couldn't say that out loud. And apparently the discussion is now opening up. I think change is going to be a long time coming. "

" I'm continually amazed by how many people who appear to be extroverts are actually introverts. "

" I prefer listening to talking, reading to socializing, and cozy chats to group settings. "

" Many introverts feel there's something wrong with them, and try to pass as extroverts. But whenever you try to pass as something you're not, you lose a part of yourself along the way. You especially lose a sense of how to spend your time. "

" Most people who have grown up introverted in this very extroverted culture of ours have had painful experiences of feeling like they are out of step with what's expected of them. Parenting can pose unique challenges for introverted parents, who fear that their own painful experiences will be repeated in their children's lives. "

" Your tendency to be inward-directed or outward-directed is huge; it governs every part of the way you live and work and love. "

" I use a lot of old-fashioned expressions. "

" I think the shyness one feels in childhood is often overcome with time. There are children who hide behind their parents' legs, but you don't see grown-ups hiding behind people. It just doesn't happen. I mean, not that often. People develop social skills over time. "

" Shyness is about the fear of social judgments - at a job interview or a party you might be excessively worried about what people think of you. Whereas an introvert might not feel any of those things at all, they simply have the preference to be in a quieter setting. "

" I'm insatiably curious about human nature. I feel very lucky that as a writer I get to learn so much about it just to do my job right. "

" I actually find extroversion to be a really appealing personality style. "

" To some extent, we've always had an admiration for extroversion in our culture. But the extrovert ideal really came to play at the turn of the 20th century when we had the rise of big business. "

" I get a lot of letters from introverts asking how they can meet people. The key is to make sure that you are doing things you enjoy. "

" Originally, technology was pretty clearly on the side of introversion. It allowed introverts to connect with people, to express their ideas in a less stimulating way: you're sitting alone behind a computer. But I'm starting to think that the pressure to self-present constantly online is becoming so extreme. "

" I've wanted to be a writer since I was four years old! "

" Opposites attract, and I think temperament is so fundamental that you end up craving someone of the opposite temperament to complete you. "

Susan Cain

You

Attract

" Some introverts are perfectly comfortable with public speaking; I'm not one of them. "