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America had shifted from what influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a culture of character to a culture of personality, and opened up a Pandora's box of personal anxieties of which we would never recover.

Susan Cain

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Susan Cain
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: March 20
Lawyer
Non-Fiction Writer
Writer
America
Opened
Character
Cultural
Pandora
Never
Boxes
Warren
Would
Anxiety
Shifted
Personality
Anxieties
Personal
Recover
Called
Influential
Culture
Historian

More quotes by Susan Cain

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We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.
Susan Cain
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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
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But when the group is literally capable of changing our perceptions, and when to stand alone is to activate primitive, powerful, and unconscious feelings of rejection, then the health of these institutions seems far more vulnerable than we think.
Susan Cain
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Every American was to become a performing self.
Susan Cain
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What if you love knowledge for its own sake, not necessarily as a blueprint to action? What if you wish there were more, not fewer reflective types in the world?
Susan Cain
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(Finland is a famously introverted nation. Finnish joke: How can you tell if a Finn likes you? He's staring at your shoes instead of his own.)
Susan Cain
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Scores of studies have shown that venting doesn't soothe anger it fuels it.
Susan Cain
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I'm insatiably curious about human nature.
Susan Cain
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...remember the dangers of the New Groupthink. If it's creativity you're after, ask your employees to solve problems alone before sharing their ideas. If you want the wisdom of the crowd, gather it electronically, or in writing, and make sure people can't see each other's ideas until everyone has had a chance to contribute.
Susan Cain
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I've never given a speech without being terrified first.
Susan Cain
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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
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[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
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In our culture, snails are not considered valiant animals - we are constantly exhorting people to come out of their shells - but there's a lot to be said for taking your home with you wherever you go.
Susan Cain
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Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.
Susan Cain
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When you're more focused in getting your message across than you are worrying about how people are viewing you, that's huge.
Susan Cain
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Though shyness per se was unacceptable, reserve was a mark of good breeding.
Susan Cain
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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.
Susan Cain
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Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it
Susan Cain
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It's never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population.
Susan Cain
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We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts - which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. Depending on which study you consult, one third to one half of Americans are introverts - in other words, one out of every two or three people you know.
Susan Cain