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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

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Susan Cain
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: March 20
Lawyer
Non-Fiction Writer
Writer
Nations
Bold
Mean
Half
Third
Great
Happy
Thirds
Introverts
Every
Words
Sight
Extroverts
Really
Means
Americans
Sociable
People
Lost
Nation
Consult
Three
Told
Introvert
Study
Depending
Two

More quotes by Susan Cain

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We often marvel at how introverted, geeky, kid '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'er plunked into.
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I've never given a speech without being terrified first.
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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.
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There is no one more courageous than the person who speaks with the courage of his convictions.
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One honest relationship can be more productive than fistfuls of business cards.
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I use a lot of old-fashioned expressions.
Susan Cain
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Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Gandhi — all these peopled described themselves as quiet and soft-spoken and even shy. And they all took the spotlight, even though every bone in their bodies was telling them not to.
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It's not that there is no small talk...It's that it comes not at the beginning of conversations but at the end...Sensitive people...'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.
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What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent.
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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.
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Scores of studies have shown that venting doesn't soothe anger it fuels it.
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Every American was to become a performing self.
Susan Cain
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The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.
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Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.
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It's never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population.
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Though shyness per se was unacceptable, reserve was a mark of good breeding.
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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.
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Shyness is inherently uncomfortable introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree.
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The pressure to entertain, to sell ourselves, and never to be visibly anxious keeps ratcheting up.
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