Shyness Quotes - Page 7

• … that sour blend of loneliness and lust for recognition, shyness and extravagance, deep insecurity and self-intoxicated egomania, that drives poets and writers out of their rooms to seek each other out, to rub shoulders with one another, bully, joke, condescend, feel each other, lay a hand on a shoulder or an arm round a waist, to chat and argue with little nudges, to spy a little, sniff out what is cooking in other pots, flatter, disagree, collude, be right, take offence, apologise, make amends, avoid each other, and seek each other’s company again.

  Amos Oz

  Loneliness, Self, Hands

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• I have learned that some people who look fine are more crippled than I am, by fears they can’t explain. Other people are held back by shyness, or anger. In making friends, I see the way some people handicap themselves. I believe there are choices each of us make every single day. We can dwell on our limitations or we can push ourselves past them.

  Cammie McGovern

  Believe, Past, People

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• She dropped her shyness like a nightgown, and in the liquid glare of sunlight on old boards she held up her hands-as if, in the terror of the upcoming skirmish, she had at last understood that she was beautiful. In her own way.

  Gregory Maguire

  Beautiful, Hands, Boards

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• But whereas a puppy will cringe away or roll on its back, groveling, a little boy may cover his shyness with nonchalance, with bravado, or with secrecy. And once a boy has suffered rejection, he will find rejection even where it does not exist-or, worse, will draw it forth from people simply by expecting it.

  John Steinbeck

  Boys, People, Rejection

  John Steinbeck (1952). “East of Eden, And, The Wayward Bus”

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• I was very shy growing up. My shyness manifested as a big personality, as opposed to the wallflower personality. It's been a journey getting comfortable in my skin. I've worked on trying to find the authentic balance between the bravado of my personality that was sort of a defense and the truth within my bigness.

  Tracee Ellis Ross

  Growing Up, Journey, Personality

  FaceBook post by Tracee Ellis Ross from Jul 06, 2012

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• I am uninterested in appearing in newspapers and on television. Many people think I am striking a pose - that I want to create a sense of shyness. But it's just not something I want to do. I overdosed.

  Agnetha Faltskog

  Thinking, People, Want

  "Abba set for reunion as Agnetha admits, 'I have a dream'" by Alex Duval Smith, www.theguardian.com. January 2, 2011.

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• I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Spiritual, Reality, Talking

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• Most of the writers I know are weird hybrids. There's a strong streak of egomania coupled with extreme shyness. Writing's kind of like exhibitionism in private. And there's also a strange loneliness, and a desire to have some kind of conversation with people, but not a real great ability to do it in person.

  David Foster Wallace

  Strong, Real, Loneliness

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• Modesty is related to diffidence, diffidence is related to shyness, Shyness is a synonym for timidity, timidity is a characteristic of the meek, the meek do not inherit the Earth, they serve those who are self confident and self assertive.

  Dean Koontz

  Self, Earth, Modesty

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• I'm still a shy person. I've learned to put that aside on certain occasions. I have to. It's part of my job.

  Alexis Bledel

  Jobs, Shy, I've Learned

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• One of the best things about life is friends. We all agree on that. And yet our shyness with strangers often prevents friendship from ever gaining a foothold. If only we would realize that the other person is probably just as shy as we are and is simply waiting—and hoping—for us to make the first move.

  Jerry Spinelli

  Moving, Waiting, Shy

  Jerry Spinelli, Eileen Spinelli (2014). “Today I Will”, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• If you want to do something big in your life, you must remember that shyness is only the mind. If you think shy, you act shy. If you think confident you act confident. Therefore never let shyness conquer your mind.

  Arfa Karim

  Thinking, Mind, Want

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• The only self-consciousness in the film [Dream of Life] is anyone's natural shyness.

  Steven Sebring

  Dream, Self, Consciousness

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• There is something to the fact that when you're on stage or when you're playing someone else, you're able to transmute all the things inside you that maybe get a bit blocked by the wall of shyness, or the wall of anxiety, or [by] overthinking. They sort of fall away in that moment and channeled into something else.

  Emma Stone

  Wall, Fall, Overthinking

  "Extended transcript: Emma Stone". www.cbsnews.com. February 12, 2017.

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• Clothes are nothing more than a fig leaf. And the bodies beneath are just another layer of clothing, an outfit of flesh with an impractically thin leather exterior, in various shades of pink, yellow and brown. The souls alone are real. Seen in this way, there can never be any such thing as social unease or shyness or embarrassment. All you need do is greet your fellow soul.

  Michel Faber

  Real, Yellow, Clothes

  Michel Faber (2014). “The Book of Strange New Things”, p.77, Canongate Books

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• Powerful new drug-free treatments have been developed for depression and for every conceivable type of anxiety, such as chronic worrying, shyness, public speaking anxiety, test anxiety, phobias, and panic attacks. The goal of the treatment is not just partial improvement but full recovery.

  David D. Burns

  Powerful, Recovery, Worry

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• Onstage it was always comfortable for me because that's where I felt at home. Offstage it was a different situation. I was still shy offstage and unfortunately, my shyness and my inability to communicate and really have great conversations or be part of the gang - in inverted commas - led me to the drug addiction, which, you know, blighted my life for 16 years because I thought by doing that it would make me join in.

  Elton John

  Home, Years, Addiction

  "A More Reflective Leap On Elton John's 'Diving Board'". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. September 23, 2013.

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• They remember me as this shy girl sitting under the table. But they obviously didn't know what was going on in my head.

  Izabella Scorupco

  Girl, Shy, Sitting

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• I've always been shy, but in New Orleans there were times my shyness would cause me actual physical pain. I'd get so claustrophobic around people that I'd bend over from the sickness in my stomach. That's not a good way to be when you're famous, obviously.

  Ricky Williams

  Pain, New Orleans, People

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• I do not say what I feel, and people often take that for shyness, even kindness.

  Amy Bloom

  Kindness, People, Feels

  Amy Bloom (2015). “Rowing to Eden: Collected Stories”, p.36, Granta Books

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• If you want to be a reference librarian, you must learn to overcome not only your shyness but also the shyness of others!

  S. R. Ranganathan

  Inspirational, Learning, Library

  S. R. Ranganathan (2006). “The Five Laws of Library Science”, Ess Ess Publications

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• An author arrives at a good style when his language performs what is required of it without shyness.

  Cyril Connolly

  Writing, Style, Language

  Cyril Connolly (2008). “Enemies of Promise”, p.17, University of Chicago Press

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• I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the prayers, the straitening shyness that assail one. It is as though the words were not only indelible but that they spread out like dye in water and color everything around them. A strange and mystic business, writing.

  John Steinbeck

  Prayer, Writing, Color

  John Steinbeck (1990). “Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters”, p.12, Penguin

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• I can work with shyness, but for the most part I want people to feel comfortable with me. It's really more about the photographer feeing comfortable right when they walk in that makes the subject feel comfortable.

  Ryan McGinley

  People, Want, Photographer

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• I was living in New York City and flat broke. My next door neighbor was an actor and he always seemed to be having more fun than I was. He convinced me to give acting a shot, but because of my shyness I was sure it would be a lost cause.

  Joe Flanigan

  New York, Fun, Doors

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