Quotes from Sophia Dembling

One of the risks of being quiet is that the other people can fill your silence with their own interpretation: You're bored. You're depressed. You're shy. You're stuck up. You're judgemental. When others can't read us, they write their own story—not always one we choose or that's true to who we are.

I've been accused my whole life of being "too sensitive". This actually kind of pisses me off, but maybe that's just because I'm too sensitive.

Introverts think carefully before they speak. We can be excellent public speakers because we prepare carefully.

Jung was the first to propose the model of psychic energy, suggesting that for introverts, energy flows inward, while for extroverts, energy flows outward. Introverts tend to embrace this definition. It fels right for us because we know exactly what it feels like to have our energy depleted when we have sent too much flowing outward.

Extroverts sparkle, introverts glow. Extroverts are fireworks, introverts are a fire in the hearth.

Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I have nothing to say.

Nine out of ten introverts agree: The telephone is the tool of the devil.

It's not that introverts aren't good team players. We just don't need to be in the same room as the rest of the team at all times. We would much prefer to have part of the project carved out for us to squirrel away with it in our offices, consulting as necessary but working independently.

We didn't know you were an introvert, we thought you were just a bitch.

Another explained, "I think I'd speak for any introvert when I say if you could hear all the thoughts running through an introvert's mind at any given moment—you'd feel like you'd just had your ear talked off for the last hour.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with finding our own thoughts more interesting than a long story about someone's husband's niece's gum surgery. Introverts

Introverts are actually a lot like Clark Kent-- mild and unassuming much of the time, but able to swoop in and turn on our Supercharm when we choose.

In one study, researchers used an iPhone app to check in on people at random points throughout the day and found that the more people were thinking about something other than what they were doing, the less happy they felt. Even when they weren't thinking about anything particularly bad.

Just because you want to join the party does not mean you are required to stay until the last drunk passes out.

One of the risks of being quiet is that other people can fill your silence with their own interpretations: You're bored. You're depressed. You're shy. You're stuck-up. You're judgemental. You have nothing to say.

Brando said he'd noticed that powerful people spoke quietly, and Don Corleone's quiet calm and nearly inaudible speaking voice are key to the character. When Corleone speaks, you have to be quiet to hear him. What can we learn from Don Corleone (that doesn't involve killing people)? That quiet does have its own power, if we harness it.

Being lucky in love might be less a matter of luck and more a matter of paying attention.

Not only has volume been ratcheted up but expectations have, too. Quiet success--painting a picture, writing a poem, writing an algorithm--is all well and good, but if you haven't become famous doing it, then did it really matter?

We may have, she suggests, a thin boundary between our conscious and unconscious minds, living with one foot in the real world and one in the world inside our heads.

The introvert's dilemma is that we might not get a lot of invitations for the kind of socializing we like best--small, mellow gatherings. In other words, the kind of socializing other introverts like to do. Because, let's face it: We're introverts. We're all at home waiting to be invited to do introvert things. Which means, of course, that none of us are getting the invitations we crave. It's an introvert standoff.

One of the risks of being quiet is that the other people can fill your silence with their own interpretation: You're bored. You're depressed. You're shy. You're stuck up. You're judgmental. When others can't read us, they write their own story—not always one we choose or that's true to who we are.

The best job for an introvert is the job that calls you.

Small talk is the WD-40 of society. It has a purpose, perhaps many purposes. A few niceties with a sales clerk, a little joshing with your dentist's receptionist, some light get-to-know-ya banter with a stranger at a party—it keeps the gears of society cranking smoothly, makes the world feel friendly, and protects our social muscles from atrophy.

One reason listening can be exhausting for introverts is that we pay attention. We listen hard. Words enter our ears and then go straight to our busy, whirring brains to be processed, considered, and analyzed.