Shyness Quotes

...I'm shy in person - so afraid to confess my love - I need a go-between - our mutual friend, the Moon...

John Geddes

I would not unduly praise the virtue of restraint. It is often merely temperamental. But it is not always a sign of coldness. It may be pride. There can be nothing more humiliating than to see the shaft of one's emotion miss the mark of either laughter or tears. Nothing more humiliating! And this for the reason that should the mark be missed, should the open display of emotion fail to move, then it must perish unavoidably in disgust or contempt.

Joseph Conrad

It is only through timidity that states are lost.

Voltaire (FrançoisMarie Arouet)

How very seldom do you encounter in the world a man of great abilities, acquirements, experience, who will unmask his mind, unbutton his brains, and pour forth in careless and picturesque phrase all the results of his studies and observation; his knowledge of men, books, and nature. On the contrary, if a man has by any chance an original idea, he hoards it as if it were old gold; and rather avoids the subject with which he is most conversant, from fear that you may appropriate his best thoughts.

Benjamin Disraeli

Shy and proud men are more liable than any others to fall into the hands of parasites and creatures of low character. For in the intimacies which are formed by shy men, they do not choose, but are chosen.

Sir Henry Taylor

The shy man does have some slight revenge upon society for the torture it inflicts upon him. He is able, to a certain extent, to communicate his misery. He frightens other people as much as they frighten him. He acts like a damper upon the whole room, and the most jovial spirits become, in his presence, depressed and nervous.

Jerome K. Jerome

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

Kahlil Gibran, "The Captive King

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.

Jane Austen

Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.

Penelope Keith

Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.

Andre Dubus, Broken Vessels, 199

Happiness hates the timid! So does science!

Eugene O'Neill, Strange Interlud