Quiet Quotes

“We know this type of person well from literature, probably because so many writers are sensitive introverts themselves. He “had gone through life with one skin fewer than most men,” the novelist Eric Malpass writes of his quiet and cerebral protagonist, also an author, in the novel The Long Long Dances.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“She had strong, sometimes disturbing dreams at night. She was “strangely intense,” and often beset by powerful emotions, both positive and negative. She had trouble finding the sacred in the everyday; it seemed to be there only when she withdrew from the world.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Imagine how much better you’ll be at this sweet-spot game once you’re aware of playing it. You can set up your work, your hobbies, and your social life so that you spend as much time inside your sweet spot as possible.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“The word that Kagan first used to describe high-reactive people was inhibited, and that’s exactly how I still feel at some dinner parties.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“They like to read; for them there’s nothing more exciting than ideas. And some of this has to do with how they spent their time when they were growing up.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“I’m prone to wild flights of self-doubt, but I also have a deep well of courage in my own convictions. I feel horribly uncomfortable on my first day in a foreign city, but I love to travel. I was shy as a child, but have outgrown the worst of it.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Putting theory into practice is hard for them,” writes Gallagher, “because their sensitive natures and elaborate schemes are unsuited to the heterogeneous rigors of the schoolyard.” Yet as we’ll see in the chapters to come, these traits—alertness, sensitivity to nuance, complex emotionality—turn out to be highly underrated powers.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“High-reactive children pay what one psychologist calls “alert attention” to people and things. They literally use more eye movements than others to compare choices before making a decision. It’s as if they process more deeply—sometimes consciously, sometimes not—the information they take in about the world.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“In the meantime, I’ve told you my tale of abject terror because it lies at the heart of some of my most urgent questions about introversion. On some deep level, my fear of public speaking seems connected to other aspects of my personality that I appreciate, especially my love of all things gentle and cerebral.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“On August 15, 2008, Pete Cashmore, the founder of Mashable, the online guide to social media, weighed in. “Wouldn’t it be a great irony,” he asked, “if the leading proponents of the ‘it’s about people’ mantra weren’t so enamored with meeting large groups of people in real life? Perhaps social media affords us the control we lack in real life socializing: the screen as a barrier between us and the world.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“If there is only one insight you take away from this book, though, I hope it’s a newfound sense of entitlement to be yourself. I can vouch personally for the life-transforming effects of this outlook. Remember that first client I told you about, the one I called Laura in order to protect her identity? That was a story about me. I was my own first client.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Events like this don't give me the sense of oneness others seem to enjoy; it's always been private occasions that make me feel connected to the joys and sorrows of the world, often in the form of communion with writers and musicians I'll never meet in person. Proust called these moments of unity between writer and reader 'that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Since when is solitude one of the Seven Deadly Sins? But to a fellow evangelical, McHugh's sense of spiritual failure would make perfect sense. Contemporary evangelicalism says that every person you fail to meet and proselytize is another soul you might have saved. It also emphasizes building community among confirmed believers, with many churches encouraging (or even requiring) their members to join extracurricular groups organized around every conceivable subject—cooking, real-estate investing, skateboarding. So every social event McHugh left early, every morning he spent alone, every group he failed to join, meant wasted chances to connect with others.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“According to Free Trait Theory, we are born and culturally endowed with certain personality traits—introversion, for example—but we can and do act out of character in the service of “core personal projects.” In other words, 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, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“high-reactive child’s ideal parent: someone who “can read your cues and respect your individuality; is warm and firm in placing demands on you without being harsh or hostile; promotes curiosity, academic achievement, delayed gratification, and self-control; and is not harsh, neglectful, or inconsistent.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“What scientists haven’t realized until recently is that these risk factors have an upside. In other words, the sensitivities and the strengths are a package deal. High-reactive kids who enjoy good parenting, child care, and a stable home environment tend to have fewer emotional problems and more social skills than their lower-reactive peers, studies show. Often they’re exceedingly empathic, caring, and cooperative. They work well with others. They are kind, conscientious, and easily disturbed by cruelty, injustice, and irresponsibility. They’re successful at the things that matter to them. They don’t necessarily turn into class presidents or stars of the school play, Belsky told me, though this can happen, too: “For some it’s becoming the leader of their class. For others it takes the form of doing well academically or being well-liked.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Ericsson wondered what had happened. “I really thought about this a lot,” he recalls in an interview with Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Iconoclast, the neuroeconomist Gregory Berns”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“It’s not always so easy, it turns out, to identify your core personal projects. And it can be especially tough for introverts, who have spent so much of their lives conforming to extroverted norms that by the time they choose a career, or a calling, it feels perfectly normal to ignore their own preferences. They may be uncomfortable in law school or nursing school or in the marketing department, but no more so than they were back in middle school or summer camp. I,”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Gandhi’s passivity was not weakness at all. It meant focusing on an ultimate goal and refusing to divert energy to unnecessary skirmishes along the way.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“In most settings, people use small talk as a way of relaxing into a new relationship, and only once they’re comfortable do they connect more seriously. Sensitive people seem to do the reverse. They “enjoy small talk only after they’ve gone deep,” says Strickland. “When sensitive people are in environments that nurture their authenticity, they laugh and chitchat just as much as anyone else.” On”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“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,” he”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“We fail to realize that participating in an online working group is a form of solitude all its own.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck once observed, introversion “concentrates the mind on the tasks in hand, and prevents the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.” In other words, if you’re in the backyard sitting under a tree while everyone else is clinking glasses on the patio, you’re more likely to have an apple fall on your head.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“introverts are uniquely good at leading initiative-takers. Because of their inclination to listen to others and lack of interest in dominating social situations, introverts are more likely to hear and implement suggestions.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“The contrast is striking,” writes Michael Harris Bond, a cross-cultural psychologist who focuses on China. “The Americans emphasize sociability and prize those attributes that make for easy, cheerful association. The Chinese emphasize deeper attributes, focusing on moral virtues and achievement.” Another”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“verbal fluency and sociability are the two most important predictors of success, according to a Stanford Business School study.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“That’s because top performers overwhelmingly worked for companies that gave their workers the most privacy, personal space, control over their physical environments, and freedom from interruption.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Deliberate Practice is best conducted alone for several reasons. It takes intense concentration, and other people can be distracting. It requires deep motivation, often self-generated. But most important, it involves working on the task that’s most challenging to you personally. Only when you’re alone, Ericsson told me, can you “go directly to the part that’s challenging to you. If you want to improve what you’re doing, you have to be the one who generates the move. Imagine a group class—you’re the one generating the move only a small percentage of the time.” To”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“College students who tend to study alone learn more over time than those who work in groups. Even elite athletes in team sports often spend unusual amounts of time in solitary practice. What”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking