Susan Cain is a writer and speaker who obtained her English degree from the prestigious Princeton University, and then went on to ear a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. After her impressive academic career, Cain went on to write and publish best selling books such as, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Here are some of her most inspiring and noteworthy quotes.
“Don’t think of introversion as something that needs to be cured.”
“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.”
“Everyone shines, given the right lighting.”
A photo from @BookPeople bookstore in Austin, TX, via my friend @jgandinle!
Nothing could make me happier. pic.twitter.com/vqDwPmxzFe
— Susan Cain (@susancain) July 20, 2015
“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.”
“I prefer listening to talking, reading to socializing, and cozy chats to group settings.”
“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.”
“I use a lot of old-fashioned expressions.”
“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.”
“It’s as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people’s emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world.”
“Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.”
“Now that you’re an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or 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.”
Such an honor to interview revered fmr Campbell Soup CEO @DougConant for Quiet Lives video series, coming soon. pic.twitter.com/YJA4uSPNvB
— Susan Cain (@susancain) November 12, 2014
“Opposites attract, and I think temperament is so fundamental that you end up craving someone of the opposite temperament to complete you.”
“Or at school you might have been prodded to come “out of your shell”—that noxious expression which fails to appreciate that some animals naturally carry shelter everywhere they go,
and that some humans are just the same.”
“Our culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity’s greatest achievements.”
“Our culture rightly admires risk-takers, but we need our “heed-takers” more than ever.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Solitude matters, and for some people, it’s the air they breathe.”
“Some introverts are perfectly comfortable with public speaking; I’m not one of them.”
Meeting with @ariannahuff & Paul Scibetta to plan the Quiet Revolution! Stay tuned for exciting new developments. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Lqpn8QpjOx
— Susan Cain (@susancain) August 6, 2014
“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.”
“The key to maximizing talents is to put yourself into the zone of stimulation that’s right for you.”
“The purpose of school should be to prepare kids for the rest of their lives, but too often what kids need to be prepared for is surviving the school day itself.”
“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.”
“There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”
“This is the next great diversity issue of our time.”
“We don’t need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.”
“We have two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionally.”
“We’ve known about the transcendent power of solitude for centuries; it’s only recently that we’ve forgotten it.”
In this great and helpful video, Susan Cain talks about the way networking works for introverts.
I hope you loved these 29 amazing Susan Cain quotes.
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