I’m an introvert and maybe you are too. If not, I’m quite sure you care about some, as that’s what one-third of us are. The quotes below are from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. It’s a superb book that has not only helped me better understand some of my weaknesses but, more importantly, celebrate and cultivate my strengths. Enjoy and make sure you check out her 20-minute TED talk at the end!
“Introversion—along with its cousins’ sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness—is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man’s world., discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. 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.” (4)
“As the science journalist Winifred Gallagher writes: ‘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.’” (6)
“Now that you’re an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants… Or you’re told that you’re ‘in your head too much,’ a phrase that’s often deployed against the quiet and the cerebral. Of course, there’s another word for such people: thinkers.” (7)
“How did we go from Character to Personality without realizing that we had sacrificed something meaningful along the way?” (33)
“In the Culture of Character, the ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable. What counted was not so much the impression one made in public as how one behaved in private. The word personality didn’t exist in English until the eighteenth century, and the idea of having a good personality” was not widespread until the twentieth.” (21)
“Something might be wrong with a leadership style that values quick and assertive answers over quiet, slow decision-making.” (49)
“If we assume that quiet and loud people have roughly the same number of good (and bad) ideas, then we should worry if the louder and more forceful people always carry the day. This would mean that an awful lot of bad ideas prevail while good ones get squashed. Yet studies in group dynamics suggest that this is exactly what happens… We also see talkers as leaders. The more a person talks, the more other members direct their attention to him, which means that he becomes increasingly powerful as the meeting goes on.” (51)
“We tend to write Moses’ true personality out of the Exodus story. (Cecil B. DeMille’s classic, The Ten Commandments, portrays him as a swashbuckling figure who does all the talking, with no help from Aaron.) We don’t ask why God chose as his prophet a stutterer with a public speaking phobia. But we should. The book of Exodus is short on explication, but its stories suggest that introversion plays yin to the yang of extraversion; that the medium is not always the message; and that people followed Moses because his words were thoughtful, not because he spoke them well.” (61)
“There is a place in God’s kingdom for sensitive, reflective types. It’s not easy to claim but it’s there.” (67)
“Many evangelicals come to associate godliness with sociability.” (70)
“Introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst for innovation… if this is true… then we all want to get a taste of it. We’d want to teach our kids to work independently. We want to give employees plenty of privacy and autonomy.” (74-75)
“It can be hard for extroverts to understand how badly introverts need to recharge at the end of the day… it is also hard for introverts to understand how hurtful their silence can be.” (228)
“The secret of life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers—of persistence, concentration, insight, and sensitivity—to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems, make art, think deeply.” (264)
By the way, Susan Cain has a great little section in chapter 2 of her book that some of you might find fascinating called “Does God Love Introverts? An Evangelical’s Dilemma.” And here’s that outstanding TED Talk she did called “The Power of Introverts.”