Susan Cain: Trending quotes (page 2)

“We can stretch our personalities, but only up to a point. Bill Gates is never going to be Bill Clinton, no matter how he polishes his social skills, and Bill Clinton can never be Bill Gates, no matter how much time he spends alone with a computer.”

Susan Cain

"The quiet strength of the introvert," The Chicago Tribune, February 20, 2012.

Time , Personality

“I prefer listening to talking, reading to socializing … I like to think before I speak”

Susan Cain

softly
"Susan Cain: Quiet revolutionary" speaker profile at TED.com, February 2012 (est.)

Thinking , Reading

“Introversion — along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness — is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.”

Susan Cain

"Revenge of the introverts: It's often assumed extroverts do best in life, but a new book reveals quite the opposite... ," The Daily Mail, March 25, 2012.

Disappointment , Personality

“I look back on my years as a Wall Street lawyer as time spent in a foreign country.”

Susan Cain

"The quiet strength of the introvert," The Chicago Tribune, February 20, 2012.

Time , Country

“Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.”

Susan Cain

Manifesto, ThePowerOfIntroverts.com, January 2012 (est).

Love

“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

"Susan Cain: Quiet revolutionary" speaker profile at TED.com, February 2012 (est.)

World , Courage

“We (introverts) are not anti-social; we’re differently social.”

Susan Cain

Cook, Gareth (interviewer), "The Power of Introverts: A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance," Scientific American, January 24, 2012.

“Solitude is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place.”

Susan Cain

"The Rise of the New Groupthink," Opinion section of The New York Times, online January 13, 2012; in print January 15, 2012.

School , Idea , Fashion , Solitude

“(In writing Quiet) I was fueled by the same mix of passion and indignation that I imagine inspired Betty Friedan to publish The Feminine Mystique in 1963. Introverts are to extroverts what women were to men at that time--second-class citizens with gigantic amounts of untapped talent. Our schools, workplaces, and religious institutions are designed for extroverts, and many introverts believe that there is something wrong with them and that they should try to "pass" as extroverts. The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.”

Susan Cain

Glor, Jeff (interviewer), "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking," by Susan Cain," CBS News, January 26, 2012.

Women , Men , School , Imagination

“We need systems that reward the best ideas, not the best presenters.”

Susan Cain

Guerrero, Aaron (interviewer), "Introvert Susan Cain Explains Why Shy People Thrive at Work," U.S. News and World Report, October 3, 2013

Idea

“We've known about the transcendent power of solitude for centuries; it's only recently that we've forgotten it.”

Susan Cain

"Introverts run the world -- quietly," CNN.com, March 18, 2012.

Solitude

“Where we fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum… influences our choice of friends and partners, and how we make conversation, resolve differences and show love. It affects the careers we choose and whether or not we succeed at them.”

Susan Cain

"Revenge of the introverts: It's often assumed extroverts do best in life, but a new book reveals quite the opposite... ," The Daily Mail, March 25, 2012.

Love

“Being able to exist in a place where light and dark meet is actually not a recipe for unhappiness. It is a recipe for a deeper kind of happiness.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bastian, Jonathan (host). "Bittersweet: Susan Cain on the joy of sweet sorrow". KCRW.com (Los Angeles). May 21, 2022.

Light , Happiness

“Our difficulty accepting impermanence is the heart of human suffering.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bittersweet, Chapter 8 at p. 181

Suffering , Heart

“How did a nation founded on so much heartache turn into a culture of normative smiles?”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bittersweet, Chapter 5, title, at p. 117