#introversion

Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially “on,” we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn’t antisocial. It isn’t a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: “I’m okay, you’re okay—in small doses. ↗

— Jonathan Rauch

#introvert #socialism

I prefer to interact with people one-on-one. Any more than that, and the dynamic becomes competitive. ↗

— Laurie Helgoe

#life

Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass and it was all semicolons and parentheses. ↗

— George Eliot

#life

...according to the prevailing extroversion assumption, inviting you is a nice gesture, and pressuring you is a compliment—an indication that you are wanted. How many times have you equivocated on or even declined an invitation, only to be asked again—and again? ↗

— Laurie Helgoe

#life

Is it better to part with your introversion or to accept a diagnosis that allows you to have it as long as you see it as a problem? The introverted child’s plea for solitude seems to be either unheeded or treated. ↗

— Laurie Helgoe

#life

I talk with many Shadow Dwellers who are mystified by the fact that chatty workers are rarely reprimanded. Sit and gossip and you are fun; close the door (if you have one) and you are antisocial. ↗

— Laurie Helgoe

#life

It's as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people's emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world. ↗

— Susan Cain

#introversion #sensitivities #tragedy

What we share as introverts is the love of ideas and the desire to explore them with minimal interruption. We want and need input, but we’d rather get it through reading, research, and rich conversation than through unfiltered talk. ↗

— Laurie Helgoe

#life

Even in a personal sense, after all, art is an intensified life. By art one is more deeply satisfied and more rapidly used up. It engraves on the countenance of its servant the traces of imaginary and intellectual adventures, and even if he has outwardly existed in cloistral tranquility, it leads in the long term to overfastidiousness, over-refinement, nervous fatigue and overstimulation, such as can seldom result from a life of the most extravagant passions and pleasures. ↗

— Thomas Mann

#introversion #neuroticism #art

Though I may be efficient at the family table, I linger at the table for two. ↗

— Laurie Helgoe

#family