"The purpose of school should be to prepare kids for the rest of their lives, but too often what kids need to be prepared for is surviving the school day itself."
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Susan Cain quotes (page 5 of 7)
132 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Love is essential; gregariousness is optional. Cherish your nearest and dearest. Work with colleagues you like and respect. Scan new acquaintances for those who might fall into the former categories or whose company you enjoy for its own sake. And don't worry about socializing with everyone else. Relationships make everyone happier, introverts included, but think quality over quantity."
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"Persistence isn't very glamorous. If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the one percent. We love its flash and dazzle. But great power lies in the other ninety-nine percent."
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"We put too much of a premium on presenting and not enough on substance and critical thinking."
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"We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run."
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"I'm insatiably curious about human nature."
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"I'm not saying abolish group work - I think there's a time and a place for people to come together and exchange ideas, but let's restore the respect we once had for solitude. And we need to be much more mindful of the way we come together."
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"College students who tend to study alone learn more over time than those who work in groups."
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"Even when the attention focused on me is positive, I am uncomfortable being looked at by a lot of people - it's just not my natural state of being."
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"If you enjoy depth, don't force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns."
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"Though shyness per se was unacceptable, reserve was a mark of good breeding."
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"One honest relationship can be more productive than fistfuls of business cards."
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"Women were also urged to work on a mysterious quality called 'fascination.' Coming of age in the 1920's was a competitive business."
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"One genuine new relationship is worth a fistful of business cards."
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"Remember that introverts react not only to new people, but also to new places and events. So don’t mistake a child’s caution in new situations for an inability to relate to others. He’s recoiling from novelty or overstimulation, not from human contact. Introverts are just as likely as the next kid to seek others’ company, though often in smaller doses"
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"Studies have shown that performance gets worse as group size increases ... If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority."
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"Whoever you are, bear in mind that appearance is not reality. Some people act like extroverts, but the effort costs them energy, authenticity, and even physical health. Others seem aloof or self-contained, but their inner landscapes are rich and full of drama. So the next time you see a person with a composed face and a soft voice, remember that inside her mind she might be solving an equation, composing a sonnet, designing a hat. She might, that is, be deploying the powers of quiet."
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"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 extroversion; that the medium is not always the message; and that people followed Moses because his words were thoughtful, not because he spoke them well."
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"Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it"
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"The other thing Aron found about sensitive people is that sometimes they're highly empathic. It's as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people's emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world. They tend to have unusually strong consciences. ... they're acutely aware of the consequences of a lapse in their own behavior."
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