100 Introvert Quotes About Surviving in an Extroverted World

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published September 22, 2022

These introvert quotes will inspire you to embrace your introversion and help you survive in an extroverted world.

In a time when we all feel so busy, seemingly with no time to be off the clock from our many responsibilities, we increasingly hear the word “introvert” thrown around.

Often, you will also hear its antonym, “extrovert.”

But what does it mean to be an introvert?

Usually, people associate being introverted with being shy, quiet, and intellectual.

Sometimes, they may even assume an introvert is antisocial or socially awkward.

However, an introvert may have tons of charisma and be completely comfortable at parties or other large groups.

Introverts really just need alone time to recover from the strain of interacting with others.

Meanwhile, extroverts thrive on time spent in the company of other people.

As you browse the following introvert quotes, consider whether you are more of an introvert or an extrovert.

Check out our inspirational quotes category page for more inspirational life quotes.

Introvert quotes for those who prefer quality alone time

1. “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

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

3. “There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic asylum.” – Carl Jung

4. “I would admit I’m an introvert. I don’t know why introverts have to apologize.” – Bill Gross

5. “I am a mild introvert. But I have learned to be a very successful extrovert because if you want impact, you have to work with people.” – Patrick Pichette

6. “I know I seem really friendly, but I’m a closet introvert.” – Lauren Myracle

7. “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

8. “I’m so extroverted. I want to learn how to be introverted, though.” – Denzel Curry

9. “I’m an introverted extrovert. My job sets me apart, but I’m not hammy and don’t need attention.” – Jeremy Scott

Are all introverts shy or depressed?

10. “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

11. “Directing is extrovert and gregarious; writing is isolating, introverted, and lonely.” – David Farr

12. “I think I am half extroverted and half introverted.” – Sara Schaefer

13. “I’m probably the most introverted extrovert you’ll ever meet. Up until I got this show I was constantly told, ‘She was really good, but she’s just not cute enough.’” – Nikki Cox

14. “Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity.” – David Bowie

15. “I’m quite introverted, but I’m not shy.” – Marian Keyes

Introvert quotes about what it means

16. “People empty me. I have to get away to refill.” – Charles Bukowski

17. “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

18. “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

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

20. “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

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. “I’m not harmful, just introspective. You can probably think I’m weird, but it’s not harmful weird.” – Henry Rollins

23. “But generally speaking, I tend to be quiet and introspective.” – Rowan Atkinson

24. “I’m a very analytical person, a somewhat introspective person; that’s the nature of the work I do.” – Joni Mitchell

More insight into what being an introvert is like

25. “I always saw myself as this quiet, introspective, thoughtful person.” – Maggie Rogers

26. “I think a lot of great male comic actors are introspective, quiet personalities, which I really admire. But they are really able to turn it up when the camera’s on.” – Peter Dinklage

27. “I loved to make people laugh in high school, and then I found I loved being on stage in front of people. I’m sure that’s some kind of ego trip or a way to overcome shyness. I was very kind of shy and reserved, so there’s a way to be on stage and be performing and balance your life out.” – Steve Martin

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

29. “I don’t want to be alone. I want to be left alone.” – Audrey Hepburn

30. “Introverts live in two worlds: We visit the world of people, but solitude and the inner world will always be our home.” – Jenn Granneman

Introvert quotes about the differences between solitude and loneliness

31. “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

32. “Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.” – Francis Bacon

33. “There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness.” – Maggie Smith

34. “Solitude is painful when one is young but delightful when one is more mature.” – Albert Einstein

35. “I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.” – Henry David Thoreau

36. “One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

38. “When from our better selves we have too long been parted by the hurrying world, and droop. Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, how gracious, how benign is solitude.” – William Wordsworth

We all crave a little solitude sometimes

39. “Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.” – Honore de Balzac

40. “There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness. I can understand the concept of being a monk for a while.” – Tom Hanks

41. “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.” – Drew Barrymore

42. “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

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

44. “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

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

Introvert quotes about being quiet or shy

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

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

48. “Quiet people have the loudest minds.” – Stephen Hawking

49. “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

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

51. “I am a minimalist. I like saying the most with the least.” – Bob Newhart

52. “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

53. “Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.” – Napoleon Hill

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

55. “Being introverted, it doesn’t mean necessarily being shy or being afraid of public speaking; it just means that it’s hard for me to interact with people for too long.” – Amy Schumer

56. “I never felt comfortable with myself, because I was never part of the majority. I always felt awkward and shy and on the outside of the momentum of my friends’ lives.” – Steven Spielberg

57. “The flower that smells the sweetest is shy and lowly.” – William Wordsworth

58. “I’m very shy really. I spend a lot of time in my room alone reading or writing or watching television.” – Johnny Cash

59. “I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.” – Jim Carrey

60. “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.” – Plato

Thought-provoking introvert quotes

61. “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

62. “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

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

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

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

66. “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.” – Mary Sarton

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

68. “Asking an introvert to open up is as rude as asking an extrovert to shut up.” – Unknown

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

70. “Writing is something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.” – John Green

More introvert quotes and sayings

71. “The more you talk, the less people listen.” – Meg White

72. “The most introspective of souls are often those that have been hurt the most.” – Shannon Alder

73. “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.” – Sophia Dembling

74. “Inside was where she lived, physically and mentally. She resided in the horn of plenty of her own prodigious mind, fertilized by inexhaustible curiosity.” – Tim LaHaye

75. “Introverts treasure the close relationships they have stretched so much to make.” ― Adam S. McHugh

76. “In a world where people die for fame, we introverts crave isolation.” – Harman Kaur

77. “Shyness is a symptom of and a punishment for thinking too little of and too much about yourself.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

78. “The loner who looks fabulous is one of the most vulnerable loners of all.” ― Anneli Rufus

79. “A world I will never feel comfortable in, never understand, and never approve of or forgive.” – Woody Allen

80. “Beware of those who don’t fight back. Sooner or later, they will.” – Joyce Rachelle

Introvert Quotes To Embrace Being Alone

81. “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

82. “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

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

84. You have to be alone to develop all the idiosyncrasies that make a person interesting.” —Andy Warhol

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

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

87. “Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me. They’re shy and they live in their heads.” — Steve Wozniak

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

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

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

Introverts and the need to be alone

91. “Introverts need to trust their gut and share their ideas as powerfully as they can.” ― Susan Cain

92. “Introverts are collectors of thoughts, and solitude is where the collection is curated and rearranged to make sense of the present and future.” ― Laurie Helgoe

93. “I am really an introvert, and I need that time alone for a variety of reasons.” ― Kate DiCamillo

94. “Introverts paradoxically pull away from culture and create culture.” ― Laurie Helgoe

95. “Being a writer is a very private, internal process. Ultimately, I am more the writer, being an introvert.” ― Paula Cole

96. “Introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst to innovation.” ― Susan Cain

97. “Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell.” ― Criss Jami

98. “When an introvert is quiet, don’t assume he is depressed, snobbish or socially deficient.” ― Laurie Helgoe

99. “The only thing a true introvert dislikes more than talking about himself is repeating himself.” ― Jonathan Rauch

100. “[Introverts,] the world needs you, and it needs the things you carry. So I wish you the best of all possible journeys and the courage to speak softly.” ― Susan Cain