Introvert Quotes

As much as anything else, it was a stare, not so paradoxically, of a privacy-lover who, once his privacy has been invaded, doesn't quite approve when the invader just gets up and leaves, one-two-three, like that.

~ J.d. Salinger

I never went downstairs to join my housemates around the television. I cooked dinner later than everyone else and carried the plate up to my bedroom. I knew they must have thought me aloof, or a little bit eccentric, or maybe even unkind, but I didn't care. Once the kitchen door swung shut behind me, I was alone, and so everything was okay.

~ Sara Baume

How difficult it is to find solitude in a world that constantly demands your attention.

~ Joyce Rachelle

Healthy introspection, without undermining oneself; it is a rare gift to venture into the unexplored depths of the self, without delusions or fictions, but with an uncorrupted gaze.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

For her a day of pampering meant comic books, black liquorice, serious exercise, veggie curry and, above all, solitude.

~ Salla Simukka

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other.We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that musty old cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post office, and at the sociable, and at the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another.

~ Henry David Thoreau

That was the problem with the outside world, the human world. The whole thing was made up puzzles, of a language she didn't quite speak.

~ Lauren Oliver

I was beginning to realize that what I wanted was the noise of people living near me, but not near enough to cause any inaudible noises to show up because I knew that those sorts of noises often shift into inaudible minor chords and I am unable to deal with that shift.

~ Catherine Lacey

Anxiety kicked in. I lacked people skills all my life. Any normal human interaction was foreign to me. I don’t know what to say, to not look like a major dork or something. I am weird like that. Always were.The dead – that’s a whole other world we’re talking about. They can’t interfere with my everyday life, other than to annoy me. I can be myself around the dead. The dead are good. The living? Not so much.

~ Tia Artemis

Abbey relaxed, grateful not only that someone had thought to throw a party for her, but that she had been able to escape attending.

~ Emily Ann Benedict

What does an introvert do when he's left alone? He stays alone.

~ Jenni Ferrari-Adler

Nobody enjoys the company of others as intensely as someone who usually avoids the company of others.

~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Most things look better from a distance...And as a matter of fact, so do most people. - The Spook, pg 435

~ Joseph Delaney

People can't stand to be alone with themselves, so they bother me when I'm trying to be alone with myself.

~ James Jean-Pierre

Strong introverts crave alone time (I-time) as if it were oxygen in the lungs for survival. I can become short of breath from inadequate alone time. I-time is non-negotiable for a high-functioning introvert. Without I-time, an introvert can suffer from distraction, imbalance, exhaustion, and irritability.

~ Devora Zack

There's nothing more exciting than ideas.

~ Susan Cain

Yet today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles. We’re told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable.

~ Susan Cain

The introvert's dilemma is that we might not get a lot of invitations for the kind of socializing we like best--small, mellow gatherings. In other words, the kind of socializing other introverts like to do. Because, let's face it: We're introverts. We're all at home waiting to be invited to do introvert things. Which means, of course, that none of us are getting the invitations we crave. It's an introvert standoff.

~ Sophia Dembling

An extrovert looks at a stack of books and sees a stack of papers, while an introvert looks at the same stack and sees a soothing source of escape.

~ Eric Samuel Timm

I just have a hard time with small talk. My friend Jocelyn says I'm too quiet. But I'm really not quiet. I just tend to come across that way to new people because I don't like to talk first. What if the other person doesn't want to be bothered?

~ Lauren Barnholdt

I enjoyed writing. Perhaps it was because I hardly heard the sound of my own voice. My written words were my voice, speaking, singing, ... I was there on the page

~ Jenny Moss

I felt as if each person within visual range were slowly draining the life from me. We were all connected, and the more them there were, the more I wanted to crawl under a table and cry.

~ Shaun David Hutchinson

The Hermit is an important tarot card with much to tell us, but he tends not to be so welcome around the bonfire.

~ Thomm Quackenbush

For the to see you shine, you must stay far way, for you are like the sun; when you’re too close, your light make them blind. And when you’re too far, they seek you. So let them seek you. They’re getting your light regardless, but appreciating your presence is different from recognizing your existence. If they don’t appreciate your presence, they may never recognize your absence.

~ Najwa Zebian

I'm neither extrovert nor introvert. I'm just an imperfect example of an ambivert.

~ Irfa Rahat

…while the outside world was full of danger, I knew my interior. I was certain that I could oust an intruder there.

~ Gail Carson Levine

But the most important thing to know about being an introvert is that there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not broken because you’re quiet. It’s okay to stay home on a Friday night instead of going to a party. Being an introvert is a perfectly normal 'thing' to be.

~ Jenn Granneman

You are like an ocean: quietly ebbing and flowing to the rhythm of life, but wildly expansive and profoundly powerful. You are boundless. You are whole. Your quietness is your strength. Your depth is your advantage.

~ Aletheia Luna

He began to prefer talking on the phone to actually getting together with someone, preferred the bodilessness of it, and started to turn down social engagements. He didn't want to actually sit across from someone in a restaurant, look at their face, and eat food. He wanted to turn away, not deal with the face, have the waitress bring them two tin cans and some string so they could just converse, in a faceless dialogue.

~ Lorrie Moore