Top 500 Susan Cain Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “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

102. “When you’re feeling scared, genuine passion will lift you up and give you the excitement you need to propel you through your fear. Fear is a powerful enemy, but passion is an even stronger friend.”

— Susan Cain

103. “Do you really believe in what you said or wrote – in the thing that’s bringing criticism? And if I do believe it, I can withstand anything.”

— Susan Cain

104. “It also helps explain why extroverts are more prone than introverts to overconfidence – defined as greater confidence unmatched by greater ability.”

— Susan Cain

105. “Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person’s capacity to act. – MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI.”

— Susan Cain

106. “Every American was to become a performing self.”

— Susan Cain

107. “Love is essential; gregariousness is optional. Cherish your nearest and dearest. Work with colleagues you like and respect. Scan new acquaintances for those who might fall into the former categories or whose company you enjoy for its own sake. And don’t worry about socializing with everyone else. Relationships make everyone happier, introverts included, but think quality over quantity.”

— Susan Cain

108. “If you’re an introvert, find your flow by using your gifts. You have the power of persistence, the tenacity to solve complex problems, and the clear-sightedness to avoid pitfalls that trip others up. You enjoy relative freedom from the temptations of superficial prizes like money and status. Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths.”

— Susan Cain

109. “Those who live the most fully realized lives – giving back to their families, societies, and ultimately themselves – tend to find meaning in their obstacles.”

— Susan Cain

110. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world. – MAHATMA GANDHI.”

— Susan Cain

111. “We like to think that we value individuality, but all too often we admire one type of individual – the.”

— Susan Cain

112. “Introverts tend to be driven by their interests and passions, naturally organizing their lives around the things they love most to do. This is a great boon, because focusing on one or two pursuits tends to build mastery in a given area, and mastery builds self-confidence – rather than the other way around.”

— Susan Cain

113. “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.”

— Susan Cain

114. “It’s that creativity has the power to look pain in the eye, and to decide to turn it into something better.”

— Susan Cain

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

— Susan Cain

116. “Though shyness per se was unacceptable, reserve was a mark of good breeding.”

— Susan Cain

117. “Keep in mind the words of Sir Winston Churchill: ‘Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

— Susan Cain

118. “I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was four years old!”

— Susan Cain

119. “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.”

— Susan Cain

120. “The introverted leaders were 20 percent more likely to follow the suggestion – and their teams had 24 percent better results than the teams of the extroverted leaders.”

— Susan Cain

121. “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.”

— Susan Cain

122. “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.”

— Susan Cain

123. “High-reactive kids also tend to think and feel deeply about what they’ve noticed, and to bring an extra degree of nuance to everyday experiences.”

— Susan Cain

124. “Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me – they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee.”

— Susan Cain

125. “Aron has noted that sensitive people tend to speak softly because that’s how they prefer others to communicate with them.”

— Susan Cain

126. “Some animals carry their shelter wherever they go. Some humans are just the same.”

— Susan Cain

127. “If you’re that rare engineer who’s an inventor and also an artist, I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

— Susan Cain

128. “Use your natural powers – of persistence, concentration, and insight – to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems, make art, and think deeply.”

— Susan Cain

129. “If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority.”

— Susan Cain

130. “You may be so busy trying to appear like a zestful, reward-sensitive extrovert that you undervalue your own talents, or feel underestimated by those around you. But when you’re focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.”

— Susan Cain

131. “Persistence isn’t very glamorous. If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the one percent. We love its flash and dazzle. But great power lies in the other ninety-nine percent. “It’s not that I’m so smart,” said Einstein, who was a consummate introvert. “It’s that I stay with problems longer.”

— Susan Cain

132. “Don’t let anyone tell you that introverts are anti-social – we are just differently social.”

— Susan Cain

133. “Professor Richard Howard gave introverts and extroverts a complicated series of printed mazes, and found not only that the introverts tended to solve more mazes correctly, but also that they spent a much greater percentage of their allotted time inspecting the maze before entering it.”

— Susan Cain

134. “I don’t really like being the guest at someone else’s party, because then I have to be entertaining. But I’ll host parties because it puts you at the center of things without actually being a social person.”

— Susan Cain

135. “It’s also vital to recognize that many people – especially introverts like Steve Wozniak – need extra quiet and privacy in order to do their best work.”

— Susan Cain

136. “Some of the world’s most talented people are introverts.”

— Susan Cain

137. “The key is to expose your child gradually to new situations and people – taking care to respect his limits, even when they seem extreme. This produces more-confident kids than either overprotection or pushing too hard.”

— Susan Cain

138. “One new honest-to-goodness relationship is worth ten fistfuls of business cards.”

— Susan Cain

139. “Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

— Susan Cain

140. “I learned to not worry so much about the outcome, but to concentrate on the step I was on and to try to do it as perfectly as I could when I was doing it.”

— Susan Cain

141. “Introverts, in contrast, are constitutionally programmed to downplay reward – to kill their buzz, you might say – and scan for problems. “As soon they get excited,” says Newman, “they’ll put the brakes on and think about peripheral issues that may be more important. Introverts seem to be specifically wired or trained so when they catch themselves getting excited and focused on a goal, their vigilance increases.”

— Susan Cain

142. “Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know. – LAO ZI, The Way of Lao Zi.”

— Susan Cain

143. “It can be hard for extroverts to understand how badly introverts need to recharge at the end of a busy day.”

— Susan Cain

144. “The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some it’s a Broadway spotlight;.”

— Susan Cain

145. “Why shouldn’t quiet be strong? And what else can quiet do that we don’t give it credit for?”

— Susan Cain

146. “Speak with conviction. Even if you believe something only fifty-five percent, say it as if you believe it a hundred percent.”

— Susan Cain

147. “Introverts are not smarter than extroverts. According to IQ scores, the two types are equally intelligent. And on many kinds of tasks, particularly those performed under time or social pressure or involving multitasking, extroverts do better. Extroverts are better than introverts at handling information overload.”

— Susan Cain

148. “Understanding your sweet spot can increase your satisfaction in every arena of your life, but it goes even further than that. Evidence suggests that sweet spots can have life-or-death consequences.”

— Susan Cain

149. “Charlie Ledley and Jamie Mai, whose entire investment strategy was based on FUD: they placed bets that had limited downside, but would pay off handsomely if dramatic but unexpected changes occurred in the market.”

— Susan Cain

150. “How to Win Friends and Influence People is full of chapter titles like “Making People Glad to Do What You Want” and “How to Make People Like You Instantly.” All of which raises the question, how did we go from Character to Personality without realizing that we had sacrificed something meaningful along the way?”

— Susan Cain