Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not.
Susan CainRead
Introverts are capable of acting like extroverts for the sake of work they consider important, people they love, or anything they value highly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Introverts can adapt their behavior in social situations when it comes to meaningful work or loved ones.
This quote highlights the flexibility of introverts in adapting their social behaviors when faced with tasks or relationships they deeply care about. While they may prefer solitude or quieter settings, their commitment to important work or people can motivate them to step out of their comfort zones and act more extroverted than their natural tendencies would suggest.
Themes
IntrovertsExtrovertsRelationshipsWorkValues
In practice
Example use cases
A manager might share this quote during a team-building exercise to encourage understanding of different personality types.
More from Susan Cain
All quotes βWe need to do teacher training to educate them about what temperament means. Shyness is painful and you want to help a child with shyness - but the underlying temperament of being a careful, sensitive person is to be honoured, valued and respected.
Susan CainRead
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 CainRead
We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.
Susan CainRead
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 CainRead
[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 CainRead
Similar quotes
You won't forget me, Peter, will you, before spring-cleaning time comes? Of course Peter promised, and then he flew away. He took Mrs. Darling's kiss with him. The kiss that had been for no one else Peter took quite easily. Funny. But she seemd satisfied.
James M. BarrieRead
(Male) culture was (and is) parasitical, feeding on the emotional strength of women without reciprocity.
Shulamith FirestoneRead
Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in - particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matters most in life.
Rick WarrenRead
Those influences which really make and mar human happiness and greatness are beyond the reach of the law. The law can keep neighbors from trespassing, but it cannot put neighborly courtesy and good-will into their relations.
Walter RauschenbuschRead
If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.
Edmund WhiteRead