A Manifesto for Introverts1. There’s a word for ‘people who are in their heads too much’: thinkers.2. Solitude is a catalyst for innovation.3. The next generation of quiet kids can and must be raised to...

I was the nicest person you’d ever want to know,” Alex recalls, “but the world wasn’t that way. The problem was that if you were just a nice person, you’d get crushed. I refused to...

What’s so magical about solitude? In many fields, it’s only when you’re alone that you can engage in deliberate practice. This is the key to exceptional achievement.

If personal space is vital to creativity, so is freedom from “peer pressure”.

Introverts need to trust their gut and share their ideas as powerfully as they can.

One noteworthy study suggests that people who suppress negative emotions tend to leak those emotions later in unexpected ways. The psychologist Judith Grob asked people to hide their emotions when she showed them disgusting images....

Now that you’re an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and...

Imagination,” replied Osborn.

There’s nothing more exciting than ideas.

Use your natural powers – of persistence, concentration, and insight – to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems, make art, and think deeply

bite” or even hiss unless Greg had done something truly horrible, on some level she processes his bite to mean that she’s terribly guilty—of something, anything, who knows what?

Purification and redemption are such recurrent themes in ritual because there is a clear and ubiquitous need for them: we all do regrettable things as a result of our own circumstances, and new rituals are...

There is no one more courageous than the person who speaks with the courage of his convictions.

Scores of studies have shown that venting doesn’t soothe anger; it fuels it.

But when the group is literally capable of changing our perceptions, and when to stand alone is to activate primitive, powerful, and unconscious feelings of rejection, then the health of these institutions seems far more...

Open-plan offices have been found to reduce productivity and impair memory. They’re associated with high staff turnover. They make people sick, hostile, unmotivated, and insecure.

Did you have fun in school today?!” She’ll sense how important it is that the answer be yes.

…I also believe that introversion is my greatest strength. I have such a strong inner life that I’m never bored and only occasionally lonely. No matter what mayhem is happening around me, I know I...

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,...

Extroverts are more likely to take a quick-and-dirty approach to problem-solving, trading accuracy for speed, making increasing numbers of mistakes as they go, and abandoning ship altogether when the problem seems too difficult or frustrating....

We have two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionally.

It’s not that there is no small talk…It’s that it comes not at the beginning of conversations but at the end…Sensitive people…’enjoy small talk only after they’ve gone deep’ says Strickland. ‘When sensitive people are...

The trick for introverts is to honor their styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.

you once said to would like to sit beside me while I write. Listen in that case I could not write at all. For writing means revealing one self to excess; that utmost of self-revelation...

Introverts living under the Extroversion Ideal are like women in a man’s world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but...

We know from myths and fairy tales that there are many different kinds of powers in this world. One child is given a light saber, another a wizard’s education. The trick is not to amass...

If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the one percent.

The longer you pause to process surprising or negative feedback, the more likely you are to learn from it.

Introverts 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...

So the next time you see a person with a compose face and a soft voice, remember that inside her mind she might be solving an equation, composing a sonnet, designing a hat. She might,...

I need a break after school,” she told me later. “School is hard because a lot of people are in the room, so you get tired. I freak out if my mom plans a play...

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