Top 100 Introvert Quotes Courtesy Of Michaela Chung

After hours of searching and compiling, here it is: the most comprehensive list of introvert quotes in the universe! Find famous introvert quotes, quotes about being alone, solitude quotes, and other inspiring introvert quotes all right here for your reading pleasure.  Enjoy! 

1. “I am rarely bored alone; I am often bored in groups and crowds.” ~ Laurie Helgoe

2. “I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

3. “You see things. You keep quiet about them and you understand. “ ~ The Perks of Being a Wallflower

4. “I’m very picky with whom I give my energy to. I prefer to reserve my time, intensity and spirit exclusively to those who reflect sincerity.” ~ Dau Voire

5. “There is a tremendous difference between alone and lonely. You could be lonely in a group of people. I like being alone. I like eating by myself. I go home at night and just watch a movie or hang out with my dog. I have to exert myself and really say, oh God, I’ve got to see my friends because I’m too content by myself.” ~ Drew Barrymore

6. “Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.” ~ William S. Boroughs

7. “I think a lot, but I don’t say much.” Anne Frank

8. “People empty me. I have to get away to refill.” ~ C. Bukowski

9. “Quiet people have the loudest minds.” Stephen Hawking

10. “In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.” ~ Rollo May

11. “Don’t underestimate me because I’m quiet. I know more than I say, think more than I speak and observe more than you know.” ~ Michaela Chung

12. “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 Cain

13. “Please kindly go away, I’m introverting.” ~ Beth Buelow, The Introvert Entrepreneur

14. “Everyone shines, given the right lighting.” ~Susan Cain

15. “A good rule of thumb is that any environment that consistently leaves you feeling bad about who you are is the wrong environment.” ~ Laurie Helgoe

16. “Introverts crave meaning so party chitchat feels like sandpaper to our psyche.” ~ Diane Cameron

17. “I am a minimalist. I like saying the most with the least.” ~Bob Newhart

18. “Let’s clear one thing up: Introverts do not hate small talk because we dislike people. We hate small talk because we hate the barrier it creates between people.” ~ Laurie Helgoe

19. “Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone—that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.”~ Nikola Tesla

20. “The highest form of love is to be the protector of another person’s solitude.” Rainer Maria Rilke

21. “When you’re an introvert like me and you’ve been lonely for a while, and then you find someone who understands you, you become really attached to them. It’s a real release.” Lana Del Rey

22. “Stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don’t let others make you feel as if you have to race. If you enjoy depth, don’t force yourself to seek breadth.” ~ Susan Cain

23. “Introvert conversations are like jazz. Each player gets to solo for a nice stretch before the other player comes in and does his solo.” ~ Laurie Helgoe

24. “Introverts are word economists in a society suffering from verbal diarrhea.” ~ Michaela Chung

25. “I want to be alone… with someone else who wants to be alone.” – Dimitri Zaik.

26. “Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again.” ~Anais Nin

27. “Silence is beautiful, not awkward. The human tendency to be afraid of something beautiful is awkward.” ~Elliot Kay

28. “After an hour or two of being socially on, we introverts need to turn off and recharge … This isn’t antisocial. It isn’t a sign of depression.” Jonathan Rauch

29. “Your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you will find all your paths.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

30. “There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” ~Susan Cain

31. “I talked to a calzone for fifteen minutes last night before I realized it was just an introverted pizza. I wish all my acquaintances were so tasty.
” ~ Jarod Kintz

32. “The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some it’s a Broadway spotlight, for others, a lamplit desk.” ~ Susan Cain

33. “As a child I suppose I was not quite normal. My happiest times were when I was left alone in the house on a Saturday.” ~ Charles Bukowski

34. “In terms of, like, instant relief, canceling plans is like heroin.” ~John Mulaney

35. “Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.” ~ Paulo Coelho

36. “I was just confused about why I was feeling overwhelmed all the time and trying to adjust to having people work for me. Surprisingly, I think if you’re known on the Internet, you’re probably an introvert.” ~ Felicia Day

37. “’Come out of your shell’ – that noxious expression which fails to appreciate that some animals naturally carry shelter everywhere they go and some humans are just the same.” ~ Susan Cain

38. “I don’t have time for superficial friends, I suppose if you’re really lonely you can call a superficial friend, but otherwise, what’s the point? ~ Courtney Cox

39. “I owe everything that I have done to the fact that I am very much at ease being alone.” ~ Marilynne Robinson

40. “[Introverts] listen more than they talk, think before they speak, and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror for small talk, but enjoy deep discussions.” ~ Susan Cain

41. “My imagination functions much better when I don’t have to speak to people.” ~ Patricia Highsmith

42. “For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating.” ~ Jonathan Rauch

43. “Beware of those who seek constant crowds; they are nothing alone.” ~Charles Bukowski

44. “I’m self-sufficient. I spend a lot of time on my own and I shut off quite easily. When I communicate, I communicate 900 per cent; then I shut off, which scares people sometimes.” ~ bjork

45. “Loneliness is failed solitude.” Sherry Turkle

46. A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. ~ Bertrand Russell

47. “Whatever kind of introvert you are, some people will find you ‘too much’ in some ways and ‘not enough’ in others.” ~ Laurie Helgoe

48. “A wise man once said nothing.” ~ Proverb

49. “Don’t think of introversion as something that needs to be cured…Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to.”~ Susan Cain

50. “In an extroverted society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent.” ~ Criss Jami

51. “When I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds, until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.” ~ Mary Oliver

52. “Most people in politics draw energy from backslapping and shaking hands and all that. I draw energy from discussing ideas.” ~ Al Gore

53. “Solitude matters and for some people it’s the air they breathe.” ~ Susan Cain

54. “I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has ever been invented by committee… I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.” ~ Steve Wozniak

55. Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent. ~ Napoleon Hill

56. “Solitude has its own very strange beauty to it.” ~ Liv Tyler

57. “I was never less alone than when by myself.” ~ Edward Gibbon

58. “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. ~ Franz Kafka

59. “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” ~ Plato

60. “As an introvert, you can be your own best friend or your worst enemy. The good news is we generally like our own company, a quality that extroverts often envy. We find comfort in solitude and know how to soothe ourselves.” ~ Laurie Helgoe

61. “Introverts dislike small talk, but we are fluent in the language of ideas and dreams.” ~ Michaela Chung

62. “You may think I’m small, but I have a universe inside my mind.” ~Yoko Ono

63. “Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.” ~ Susan Cain

64. “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes” C.G. Jung

65. “Better to keep quiet and let people think you’re an idiot than speak up and confirm it.” ~ Rodney Dangerfield

66. “I restore myself when I’m alone.” Marilyn Monroe

67. “People say things to me like, ‘It’s really cool that you don’t go out and get drunk all the time and go to clubs.’ I appreciate that, but I’m kind of an introverted kind of person just by nature.” ~ Emma Watson

68. “I think I’m a weird combination of deeply introverted and very daring. I can feel both those things working.” ~ Helen Hunt

69. “E-mail is far more convenient than the telephone. As far as I’m concerned, I would throw my phone away if I could get away with it.” ~ Tom Hanks

70. “I really like to stay in my nest and not move. I travel in my mind, and that’s a rigorous state of journeying for me. My body isn’t that interested in moving from place to place.” ~ Bell Hooks

71. “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

72. “Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family.” ~ Susan Cain

73. “I don’t hate people, I just feel better when they aren’t around.” ~Charles Bukowski

74. “Introverts are capable of acting like extroverts for the sake of work they consider important, people they love, or anything they value highly.” ~ Susan Cain

75. “I don’t want to be alone. I want to be left alone.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

76. “My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude.” Warsan Shire

77. “Sometimes quiet people really do have a lot to say … they’re just being careful about who they open up to.” Susan Gale

78. “A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.” ~ Oscar Wilde

79. “I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.” ~ Margaret Donnano

80. “Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.” ~ Cheryl Strayed

81. “You only know part of me. I am a universe full of secrets.” ~ Lupytha Hermin

82. “An introvert may feel asocial when pressured to go to a party that doesn’t interest her. But for her, the event does not promise meaningful interaction. In fact, she knows that the party will leave her feeling more alone and alienated.” ~ Laurie Helgoe

83. “Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering – because you can’t take it in all at once.” ~Audrey Hepburn

84. “Kindly remove yourself from my personal space. Thanks.” ~ Gemma Correll

85. “People are always so boring when they band together. You have to be alone to develop all the idiosyncrasies that make a person interesting.” ~ Andy Warhol

86. “Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me. They’re shy and they live in their heads. The very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone…” ~ Steve Wozniak

87. “Never fail to know that if you are doing all the talking you are boring somebody.” ~Helen Gurley Brown

88. “Sometimes I just shut down and don’t talk to anyone for days. It’s nothing personal.” ~ Sonya Teclai

89. “Deep inside, she knew who she was, and that person was smart and kind and often even funny, but somehow her personality always got lost somewhere between her heart and her mouth, and she found herself saying the wrong thing or, more often, nothing at all.” ~ Julia Quinn

90. “I am lonely, yet not everybody will do. I don’t know why, some people fill the gaps but other people emphasize my loneliness.” ~ Anais Nin

91. “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” ~ Anne Lamott

92. “The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.” ~ Aldous Huxley

93. “I’m indecisive because I see eight sides to everything.” ~ April Kepne

94. “Study me as much as you like, you will never know me. For I differ a hundred ways from what you see me to be.” ~ Rumi

95. Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self. ~ Mary Sarton

96. “What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it like a secret vice!” Anne Morrow Lindbergh

97. “People inspire you, or they drain you — pick them wisely.” ~ Hans F. Hansen

98. “How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here forever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.” ~ Virginia Wolf, The Waves

99. “Every time we stomp down our introverted nature, we crush part of our soul in the process.” ~ Michaela Chung

100. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks for reading my excessively long list of introvert quotes!  I hope you found them helpful, inspiring, and/or entertaining in some way.

Did I miss any? What is your favorite introvert quote?  Feel free to share below.