15 Introvert Quotes on Why Alone Time Is the Best Time
Some people thrive in social situations. Other prefer spending time alone or having one-on-one time with close friends.
A common misconception about introverts is that they're shy and quiet. That's not necessarily true; they just find big social interactions somewhat draining, as opposed to extroverts, who enjoy social situations and find them energizing.
Introverts can exhibit many personality traits that make them great employees and workers. They're often good listeners, and while some can be highly sensitive—as extroverts can be, too—their ability to think deeply and inwardly allows them to reflect on what they want to do and say. Of course, introverts and extroverts alike have many different personality traits, so you can't apply a one-size-fits-all approach to interacting with them.
Here are 15 quotes from famous introverts on why they prefer solitude and how spending time alone helps them cope and recharge.
1. “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
2. “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
3. “I think a lot, but I don’t say much.”—Anne Frank
4. “Solitude matters, and for some people, it's the air they breathe.”―Susan Cain
5. “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
6. "I restore myself when I'm alone."—Marilyn Monroe
7. “I owe everything that I have done to the fact that I am very much at ease being alone."—Marilynne Robinson
8. “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
9. “Solitude has its own very strange beauty to it."—Liv Tyler
10. “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
11. “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
12. “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
13. "I tend to be very self-reliant and private. And I have this history of wanting to work things out on my own and protect people from what’s going on with me.”—Kerry Washington
14. “Introverts live in two worlds: We visit the world of people, but solitude and the inner world will always be our home.”―Jenn Granneman, The Secret Lives of Introverts: Inside Our Hidden World
15. “Life isn’t about just talking, it’s about thinking too."―Marie Symeou
Looking for something else to share with your introvert pal? Try one of these 27 Best Introvert Memes.
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