What is it about quotes? I’ve long loved them, collected them, made them my mantras and my touchstones. Perhaps because they succinctly and eloquently capture abstract feelings that many of us struggle to put into words. They provoke and challenge. They inspire reflection. Many times, they offer a slice of insight that can be shocking in its truth.

My energy has been high, low, backwards and forwards over the past few weeks. I’ve felt generally out of sorts. When these spells happen, I’m drawn to reading my favorite quotes (which is much less expensive than retail therapy!). This time, part of the process of regaining my sorts is to share some of my favorites with you. A favorite quotes post could go on and on, so I’ve focused on quotes that align with and speak to the heart and mind of the introvert. I hope you smile at familiar favorites, and maybe pick up a few new ones.

This above all:
To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
~Hamlet, Shakespeare

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. ~Joan Didion

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. ~ Carl Jung

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. ~ Golda Meir

You don’t need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today…watch your heart start beating. ~ Barbara Sher

Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Everybody should have his personal sounds to listen for – sounds that will make him exhilarated and alive or quite and calm…. One of the greatest sounds of them all – and to me it is a sound – is utter, complete silence. ~ Andre Kostelanetz

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~ Carl Jung

The best thinking has been done in solitude.  ~ Thomas Alva Edison

Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. ~ Saint Francis De Sales

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Be who you want to be…not what other people want to see. ~ Unknown

Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile: Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again. ~ Emil Cioran

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being. ~ Confucius

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. ~ Marianne Williamson

Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens. ~ Jimi Hendrix

I am what I am, so take me as I am! ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Accept everything about yourself–I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end–no apologies, no regrets. ~ Clark Moustakas

True healing comes from owning and accepting all of life’s energies within ourselves….When they are allowed to be expressed, they take their places as important facets of our nature. There is no split between ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ ~Shakti Gawain

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

There is no traffic jam on the extra mile. ~Anonymous

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. ~ Carl Jung

The good and the wise lead quiet lives. ~ Euripides

What are YOUR favorite quotes (introverty or otherwise)?? Please share in the comments!