Quotessence
Home / Topics / Introversion Quotes

Introversion Quotes

Browse 123 quotes about Introversion.

Related topics

IntrovertPeopleExtrovertsPersonality

Introversion Quotes

“But don’t risk having children make a speech to the class unless you’ve provided them with the tools to know with reasonable confidence that it will go well. Have kids practice with a partner and in small groups, and if they’re still too terrified, don’t force it. Experts believe that negative public speaking experiences in childhood can leave children with a lifelong terror of the podium.”

SchoolQuietSpeechShyClassroomIntrovertPublic SpeakingIntroversion
Book:Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Create image

“I kept myself to myself in the early years. I walked around and around the playground pretending to scale great mountain ranges or horizontal marshlands. In the summer months I sat beneath a sycamore tree on the edge of the school field. I collected insects in my hands only to release them at the end of playtime or lunch hour. Daddy asked me if I wanted an insect collecting set for my birthday or some jars to put them in to and take them home but I said I did not. I liked having them in my hands for that certain amount of time then letting them go off again into the undergrowth, back to their homes and to their lives. I would think about them living those lives while I sat back in my chair in the classroom and gazed blankly at times-tables.”

SchoolChildhoodIntrovertInsectsIntroversion
Book:Elmet
Create image

“It may happen, however, that he falls into despair just for the fact that he has opened his heart to another; it may be that he thinks it would have been infinitely preferable to maintain silence rather than have anyone privy to his secret. There are examples of introverts who are brought to despair precisely because they have acquired a confidant.”

DespairIntroversion
Book:The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening
Create image

“Isolation has carved me in its image and likeness. The presence of another person – of any person whatsoever – instantly slows down my thinking, and while for a normal man contact with others is a stimulus to spoken expression and wit, for me it is a counterstimulus, if this compound word be linguistically permissible. When all by myself, I can think of all kinds of clever remarks, quick comebacks to what no one said, and flashes of witty sociability with nobody. But all of this vanishes when I face someone in the flesh: I lose my intelligence, I can no longer speak, and after half an hour I just feel tired. Yes, talking to people makes me feel like sleeping. Only my ghostly and imaginary friends, only the conversations I have in my dreams, are genuinely real and substantial, and in them intelligence gleams like an image in a mirror.”

PeopleCompanyIntelligenceWitIsolationExhaustionIntroversionOther People
Book:The Book of Disquiet
Create image

“I would rather be bored alone than with someone else. I'm drawn to strange people. At a museum I look at people with the eyes of an artist, in the streets with my own. I can't remember the name of a person I have just met. In India, I travelled in a train compartment with a Swiss man I didn't know, we were crossing the plains of Kerala, I told him more about myself in several hours than I had told my best friends in several years, I knew I would never see him again, he was an ear without repercussions. Maybe I'm writing this book so I won't have to talk to anymore.”

PeopleIntrovertIntroversionSocialising
Book:Autoportrait
Create image

“A creature that hides and “withdraws into its shell,” is preparing a “way out.” This is true of the entire scale of metaphors, from the resurrection of a man in his grave, to the sudden outburst of one who has long been silent. If we remain at the heart of the image under consideration, we have the impression that, by staying in the motionlessness of its shell, the creature is preparing temporal explosions, not to say whirlwinds, of being.”

LifeSilenceHidingIntrospectionIntroversionShellPhil
Book:The Poetics of Space
Create image

“When you fail to tap into your wellsprings of inner strength due to toxic habits, environments or people, you wind up feeling trapped, stranded and unhappy. You end up in soulless jobs, destructive relationships and empty friendships. Most of all, you find yourself unsatisfied with who you are, and you often become your own worst enemy,perpetuating the cycles of pain, anger and fear within you – like I did”

FearAngerUnhappinessIntroversionIntrovertsQuiet StrengthIntrovertedness
Book:Quiet Strength: Embracing, Empowering and Honoring Yourself as an Introvert
Create image

“Quiet people always know more than they seem. Although very normal, their inner world is by default fronted mysterious and therefore assumed weird. Never underestimate the social awareness and sense of reality in a quiet person; they are some of the most observant, absorbent persons of all.”

ThinkingWisdomRealityCultureSocialUnderstandingSilenceKnowledgePsychologyCrazyAwarenessStrangeNormalJudgmentReflectionIntelligentMysteriousObservationOddAssumptionShyFriendlyBiasIntrovertMisunderstoodWeirdPrudenceDiscernmentLonerDown To EarthUnderestimatedCoolIntroversionLearnedQuiet PeopleExtrovertSocial AwarenessPrejudgmentAmbivertAbsorbent
Book:Healology
Create image

“Life is an experimental journey that we make involuntarily. It is a journey of the mind through matter, and since it is the mind that journeys, that is where we live. And so there are contemplative souls who have lived more intensely, more widely and more turbulently than those who live externally. The end result is what counts. What was felt is what was lived. A dream can tire us out as much as physical labour. We never live as hard as when we've thought a great deal.”

ThinkingLifeLivingExperienceThoughtContemplationIntroversionExtroversionInternal LifeExternal Life
Book:The Book of Disquiet
Create image

“Since I neither want not can influence the events of the world, my mission is to preserve the internal integrity and equilibrium of my mind; that will be in which the manor in which I recover the purity of the original act; I shall be my own citadel, and to it I shall retire to protect myself against a hostile and corrupt world. I shall be my own citadel and, within it, my own and only citizen.”

MadnessIdealismIntroversionRecluse
Book:Terra Nostra
Create image

“Because loners are born everywhere, we end up living everywhere. We do not, have not, tended to single ourselves out as special, elite, requiring rarefied environments. Too often we have done the opposite; lived where we lived because our jobs were there, or families, or because we'd heard the schools were good there, or that we would love a place with changing seasons. Then, no matter what, we put our noses to the grindstone. We take living there as a fait accompli, a fact. Too often we are miserable somewhere without realizing why. We blame ourselves for not buckling down, settling in, fitting in. The problem is the place, but too often we do not see this, we will not allow ourselves to see this. It's the same old thing: This is a friendly town, so what's your problem? ...To the non-loner, or the self-reproaching loner, the fact of being a loner is not comparable to those other determinants. It is not a matter of life and death, we tell ourselves. It its not a matter of breathing or of execution by stoning. But home is the crucible of living...So how can living not be a matter of life and death?”

HomeEnvironmentIntroversion
Book:Party of One: The Loner's Manifesto
Create image

“Out of town I could simply be, I could feel my self, firm and calm and unmalleable as I could not when I was in school or in any of the usual human communities that seemed to weaken or scatter me. I could sit for an hour in the rocks above the Knife River, asking for no more discourse than that water’s monotonous gabble. I was an inward child, it was true, but beyond that, I felt a contentment outside human society that I couldn’t feel within it.”

SelfNatureSocietySolitudeIntroversion
Book:Montana 1948
Create image

“My antidote is to constantly create a world for me and stick to it. I don’t go out much. When I do, people start planting thoughts in my head that I don’t want. I would go home and think their thoughts. Bad seeds... unimportant seeds and I lose my streak of knowing what’s true. That’s where I’m at. I’ve this need to be sensitive to my inner voice. And what feeds that are movies I like... the book I’m reading... some paintings. Instead, when I am with others, my mind is occupied with repetitious jokes, and their envy, and ego. My antidote is the equivalent of a cozy castle of reality—protecting things and people I choose," she said. "A customized balance of my favorite worlds.”

LifeSocietyLonelinessIdentityPersonalitySolitudeIntrovertSensitivityIntroversionIntroverts
Book:A Happy Ghost
Create image

“I've also learned how to fit in, but constantly trying to do so is more than just uncomfortable now, it hurts. Because I don't. Fit. I fold my jagged edges inside myself and smooth over the most obvious differences between us, but I am not the same as you. There are over 7 billion people on the planet, and yet I have somehow managed to spend a lifetime feeling alone.”

LonelinessSolitudeIntrovertBeing DifferentIntroversionNot Fitting In
Book:His & Hers
Create image

“There have been plenty of people in my life - family, friends, colleagues, lovers, a forecast of the usual suspects that make a person's social circle - but mine has always felt a little bent out of shape. None of the relationships I've ever formed with another human being feel real to me, more like a series of missed connections. People might recognize my face, they may even know my name, but they'll never know the real me. Nobody does. I've always been selfish with the true thoughts and feelings inside my head. I don't share them with anyone because I can't. There is a version of me I can only ever be with myself.”

LonelinessSolitudeIndependenceExileIntroversionFitting InEstrangementNot Fitting In
Book:His & Hers
Create image

“Nothing is as irritating to a shy man as a confident girl.”

MenTryingHumorFunnyTogetherQuotesGirlCan DoCouragePositiveHumourJokesHumorousSelf ConfidenceNervousManShySatireGirlsRetiringAnnoyingAphorismEmbarrassedQuotationsIntrovertJokeInsecureHilariousAssuredBoldnessEmbarrassmentSelf ConsciousReservedAphorismsCursedShynessSelf ConsciousnessTroublesomeIrritatingConfidentObnoxiousRepressedIrritationTimidityAssertivenessPoiseIntroversionIntrovertedTiresomeAssertiveSelf ConfidentAphoristAphoristsSelf ReliantSelf AssuranceLack Of ConfidenceInfuriatingMettleDiffidenceExtrovertAggravatingBashfulReticenceReserveBashfulnessNerveTimidWithdrawnAnnoySelf AssuredDiffidentBothersomeIrritatePhlegmaticReticentSheepishPhlegmSelf EffacingAplombAt EaseImperturbableMaddeningMousySelf PossessionExtrovertedInhibitedUnperturbedUnruffledCoolheadedCoynessFaroucheGallingIrksomeLevelheadedSelf PossessedTimorousUnconfidentVexingDemurenessExasperatingMousinessNettlesomePeskyPoisedReservednessSheepishnessTimidnessTimorousnessVexatious
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Create image

“Huy smiled every time he remembered to smile, to send a message that he wasn't unhappy. He had learned how to stop people from asking him what was wrong. He wasn't unhappy, he was happy to come and he was happy to watch and he was happy to listen and laugh. He figured his friends must have thought he did not have any opinions on the things they were discussing, but he did, and he wrote them down when he got home. Just because you're not good at speaking, doesn't mean you're not good at listening and thinking, he wrote on the inside front cover of his black and white speckled composition notebook.”

ThinkingListeningThoughtsJournalOpinionsSpeakingIntroversionSocialising
Book:Handsome Vanilla
Create image

“Any parent would be dismayed to think that this was their child’s experience of learning, of socializing, and of herself. Maya is an introvert; she is out of her element in a noisy and overstimulating classroom where lessons are taught in large groups. Her teacher told me that she’d do much better in a school with a calm atmosphere where she could work with other kids who are “equally hardworking and attentive to detail,” and where a larger portion of the day would involve independent work. Maya needs to learn to assert herself in groups, of course, but will experiences like the one I witnessed teach her this skill? The truth is that many schools are designed for extroverts. Introverts need different kinds of instruction from extroverts, write College of William and Mary education scholars Jill Burruss and Lisa Kaenzig. And too often, “very little is made available to that learner except constant advice on becoming more social and gregarious.” We tend to forget that there’s nothing sacrosanct about learning in large group classrooms, and that we organize students this way not because it’s the best way to learn but because it’s cost-efficient, and what else would we do with our children while the grown-ups are at work? If your child prefers to work autonomously and socialize one-on-one, there’s nothing wrong with her; she just happens not to fit the prevailing model. 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 school environment can be highly unnatural, especially from the perspective of an introverted child who loves to work intensely on projects he cares about, and hang out with one or two friends at a time. In the morning, the door to the bus opens and discharges its occupants in a noisy, jostling mass. Academic classes are dominated by group discussions in which a teacher prods him to speak up. He eats lunch in the cacophonous din of the cafeteria, where he has to jockey for a place at a crowded table. Worst of all, there’s little time to think or create. The structure of the day is almost guaranteed to sap his energy rather than stimulate it. Why do we accept this one-size-fits-all situation as a given when we know perfectly well that adults don’t organize themselves this way? We often marvel at how introverted, geeky kids “blossom” into secure and happy adults. We liken it to a metamorphosis. However, maybe it’s not the children who change but their environments. As adults, they get to select the careers, spouses, and social circles that suit them. They don’t have to live in whatever culture they’re plunked into. Research from a field known as “person-environment fit” shows that people flourish when, in the words of psychologist Brian Little, they’re “engaged in occupations, roles or settings that are concordant with their personalities.” The inverse is also true: kids stop learning when they feel emotionally threatened.”

ChildrenKidsQuietParentingIntrovertIntroversionIntrovertedness
Book:Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Create image

“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 available power, but to use well the kind you’ve been granted. Introverts are offered keys to private gardens full of riches. To possess such a key is to tumble like Alice down her rabbit hole. She didn’t choose to go to Wonderland—but she made of it an adventure that was fresh and fantastic and very much her own. Lewis Carroll was an introvert, too, by the way. Without him, there would be no Alice in Wonderland. And by now, this shouldn’t surprise us.”

WritingCreativeSolitudeQuietWriterIntrovertIntroversionAlice In WonderlandLewis Carroll
Book:Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Create image

“Not antisocial, just wanted some peace Yes, I have a low tolerance for superficialities Quiet on the outside but my mind's a chaos Music, movies, poetry, and cosmos What makes life worth living? Yes, I do love overthinking Alone but never lonely My mind's perpetually busy of things, not everyone might comprehend I usually do not follow the trend Not a snob, more of a wallflower a loner who celebrates solitude like no other.”

SolitudeIndependentSolitaryIntrovertLonerIntroversionPoems On LifeRecluseLone Wolf
Author:Miss Rainbow Moonfire
Create image

“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.”

SolitudeIntroversion
Book:Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Create image

“Any human companionship, even the dearest and most perfect, would have been alien to her then. She was sufficient unto herself, needing not love nor comradeship nor any human emotion to round out her felicity. Such moments come rarely in any life, but when they do come they are inexpressibly wonderful - as if the finite were for a second infinity - as if humanity were for a space uplifted into divinity - as if all ugliness had vanished, leaving only flawless beauty.”

SolitudeQuietIntroversionAnimism
Book:Emily Climbs
Create image

“Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other.We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that musty old cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post office, and at the sociable, and at the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another.”

PhilosophySocialSolitudeIntrovertIntroversionAntisocialThoreauWalden
Book:Walden or, Life in the Woods
Create image