Susan Cain famous quotes

04-17-2025

Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you're supposed to.
-- Susan Cain

#Thinking #Way
Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Gandhi â€” all these peopled described themselves as quiet and soft-spoken and even shy. And they all took the spotlight, even though every bone in their bodies was telling them not to.
-- Susan Cain

#Body #Spotlight #Parks
Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family. They listen more than they talk, think before they speak, and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror of small talk, but enjoy deep discussions.
-- Susan Cain

#Strong #Party #Home
Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not.
-- Susan Cain

#Environment #Painful #Shyness
Solitude matters, and for some people, it's the air they breathe
-- Susan Cain

#Air #People #Solitude
The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand, or two million, without thinking twice. The same person who finds it difficult to introduce himself to strangers might establish a presence online and then extend these relationships into the real world.
-- Susan Cain

#Real #Thinking #Hands
The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it's a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers -- of persistence, concentration, and insight -- to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.
-- Susan Cain

#Art #Persistence #Thinking
Introverts are capable of acting like extroverts for the sake of work they consider important, people they love, or anything they value highly.
-- Susan Cain

#People #Acting #Important
There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.
-- Susan Cain

#Volleyball #Zero #Motivation
It's as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people's emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world.
-- Susan Cain

#People #Tragedy #World
...I also believe that introversion is my greatest strength. I have such a strong inner life that Iâ€™m never bored and only occasionally lonely. No matter what mayhem is happening around me, I know I can always turn inward.
-- Susan Cain

#Lonely #Strong #Believe
You're told that you're in your head too much, a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Or maybe there's another word for such people: thinkers.
-- Susan Cain

#People #Phrases #Too Much
We know from myths and fairy tales that there are many different kinds of powers in this world. One child is given a light saber, another a wizard's education. The trick is not to amass all the different kinds of power, but to use well the kind you've been granted.
-- Susan Cain

#Children #Light #Different
Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.
-- Susan Cain

#Love #Love Is #Essentials
So stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don't let others make you feel as if you have to race. If you enjoy depth, don't force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns. Being relatively unmoved by rewards gives you the incalculable power to go your own way.
-- Susan Cain

#Gun #Race #Giving
Everyone shines, given the right lighting.
-- Susan Cain

#Shining #Introvert #Given
I worry that there are people who are put in positions of authority because they're good talkers, but they don't have good ideas. It's so easy to confuse schmoozing ability with talent. Someone seems like a good presenter, easy to get along with, and those traits are rewarded. Well, why is that? They're valuable traits, but we put too much of a premium on presenting and not enough on substance and critical thinking.
-- Susan Cain

#Thinking #Ideas #Worry
Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you're supposed to. Stay home on New Year's Eve if that's what makes you happy. Skip the committee meeting. Cross the street to avoid making aimless chitchat with random acquaintances. Read. Cook. Run. Write a story. Make a deal with yourself that you'll attend a set number of social events in exchange for not feeling guilty when you beg off.
-- Susan Cain

#Running #New Year #Home
[Introverts,] the world needs you and it needs the things you carry. So I wish you the best of all possible journeys and the courage to speak softly.
-- Susan Cain

#Motivation #Inspiration #Journey
There is no one more courageous than the person who speaks with the courage of his convictions.
-- Susan Cain

#Courageous #Speak #Conviction
Introverts living under the Extroversion Ideal are like women in a man's world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are.
-- Susan Cain

#Men #World #Introvert
I prefer listening to talking, reading to socializing ... I like to think before I speak (softly).
-- Susan Cain

#Reading #Thinking #Talking
Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration . They're relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame.
-- Susan Cain

#Focus #Wealth #Introvert
The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.
-- Susan Cain

#Waste #Energy #Talent
The glory of the disposition that stops to consider stimuli rather than rushing to engage with them is its long association with intellectual and artistic achievement. Neither E=mc2 nor Paradise Lost was dashed off by a party animal.
-- Susan Cain

#Party #Animal #Rushing

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