# Quiet - Author: [Susan Cain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain.md) - Quotes: 35 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet ## Quotes > We need systems that reward the best ideas, not the best presenters. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/we-need-systems.md) > I prefer listening to talking, reading to socializing … I like to think before I speak (softly). [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/i-prefer-listening.md) > Solitude matters, and for some people it is the air that they breathe. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/solitude-matters-and.md) > We've known about the transcendent power of solitude for centuries; it's only recently that we've forgotten it. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/weve-known-about.md) > Our lives are shaped as profoundly by personality as by gender or race. And the single most important aspect of personality … is where we fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/our-lives-are.md) > The key to maximizing talents is to put yourself into the zone of stimulation that’s right for you. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/the-key-to-maximizing.md) > There is zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/there-is-zero.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/where-we-fall.md) > Our culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity's greatest achievements. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/our-culture-is-biased.md) > I'm seeing businesses embrace the Quiet Revolution as the next great diversity issue of our time. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/im-seeing-businesses.md) > Embracing their quiet nature does not cause introverts to flee to a shack in the woods. It empowers them to engage with the world – but on their own terms. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/embracing-their-quiet.md) > Persistence isn’t very glamorous. If genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the 1 percent. We love its flash and dazzle. But great power lies in the other 99 percent. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/persistence-isnt-very.md) > Today we know that the reality is far more complex. For one thing, the ARAS doesn’t turn stimulation on and off like a fire truck’s hose, flooding the entire brain at once; different parts of the brain are aroused more than others at different times. Also, high arousal levels in the brain don’t always correlate with how aroused we feel. And there are many different kinds of arousal: arousal by loud music is not the same as arousal by mortar fire, which is not the same as arousal by presiding at a meeting; you might be more sensitive to one form of stimulation than to another. It’s also too simple to say that we always seek moderate levels of arousal: excited fans at a soccer game crave hyperstimulation, while people who visit spas for relaxation treatments seek low levels.* p. 123 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/today-we-know.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/the-world-needs.md) > This is the next great diversity issue of our time. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/this-is-the.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/we-can-stretch.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/eleanor-roosevelt-rosa.md) > One honest relationship can be more productive than fistfuls of business cards. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/one-honest-relationship.md) > Groups follow the most charismatic person, even though there is no correlation between being a good speaker and having great ideas. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/groups-follow-the.md) > For seven blissful years I had spent my time reading, writing and researching a book about introversion. But the publication date had arrived, the idyll was over and my metamorphosis was complete. I was now that impossibly oxymoronic creature: the Public Introvert. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/for-seven-blissful.md) > Extroverts are more likely to focus on what’s happening around them. It’s as if extroverts are seeing what is, while their introverted peers are asking what if. p. 168 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/extroverts-are-more.md) > There's no correlation between expressing an idea assertively or charismatically, and having a good idea. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/theres-no-correlation.md) > I look back on my years as a Wall Street lawyer as time spent in a foreign country. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/i-look-back.md) > Introversion — along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness — is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/introversion-along-with.md) > Most introverts aren’t aware of how they are constantly spending their time in ways that they would prefer not to be. They’ve been doing it all their lives, so it just becomes second nature. I’m trying to give people entitlement inside their own minds to be who they are. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/most-introverts-arent.md) > Everyone shines, given the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight, for others, a lamplit desk. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/everyone-shines-given.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/solitude-is-out.md) > Love is essential, gregariousness is optional. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/love-is-essential.md) > We have a two-tier class system when it comes to personality style. To devalue introversion is a waste of talent, energy and happiness. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/we-have-a-two-tier.md) > We (introverts) are not anti-social; we’re differently social. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/we-introverts-are.md) > Shyness is the fear of negative judgment, while introversion is simply the preference for less stimulation. Shyness is inherently uncomfortable; introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/shyness-is-the.md) > We moved from what cultural historians call a culture of character to a culture of personality. During the culture of character, what was important was the good deeds that you performed when nobody was looking. … But at the turn of the (20th) century, when we moved into this culture of personality, suddenly what was admired was to be magnetic and charismatic. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/we-moved-from.md) > Our culture rightly admires risk-takers, but we need our “heed-takers” more than ever. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/our-culture-rightly.md) > (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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/in-writing-quiet.md) > It’s never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-cain/quiet/its-never-a-good.md)