Socializing Quotes

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

“Every gathering has its moment. As an adult, I distract myself by trying to identify it, dreading the inevitable downswing that is sure to follow. The guests will repeat themselves one too many times, or you'll run out of dope or liquor and realize that it was all you ever had in common.”
― David Sedaris, Naked

“Socializing is more positive than being alone, that’s why meetings are so popular. People don’t like being alone. That would be, however, an important skill to learn...”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life

“I have no fear of men, as such, nor of their books. I have mixed with them--one or two of them particularly-- almost as one of their own sex. I mean I have not felt about them as most women are taught to feel--to be on their guard against attacks on their virtue; for no average man-- no man short of a sensual savage--will molest a woman by day or night, at home or abroad, unless she invites him. Until she says by a look 'Come on' he is always afraid to, and if you never say it, or look it, he never comes.”
― Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

“To me, socializing was like sinking to the bottom of a deep, deep ocean... Until eventually you couldn't take it anymore, and had to come up for air"

- Shimamura - Adachi to Shimamura”
― Hitoma Iruma, 電波女と青春男 1

“Mathilde returned and strolled past the drawing-room windows; she saw him busily engaged in describing to Madame de Fervaques the old ruined castles that crown the steep banks of the Rhine and give them so distinctive a character. He was beginning to acquit himself none too badly in the use of the sentimental and picturesque language which is called wit in certain drawing-rooms.”
― Stendhal, The Red and the Black

“This was the problem with drinks parties: getting stuck with a person you didn't want to talk to while someone you did was tantalisingly in view.”
― Robert Harris, The Fear Index

“Although when there were too many people around- which there certainly were today- it was hard even to remember to say thank you: all those people were like drowning.”
― Robin Mckinley, Pegasus

“Social media wasn't usually my thing, as it had the word "social" in it, but I'd taken to the platform after a personal tragedy. I had a cat, the cat died, and now what I used to say to my cat all day, I tweeted. It helped that 140 characters was roughly my preferred limit when it came to human interaction.”
― Colson Whitehead, The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death

“I became an artist because I was terrible with people.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark

“I feel submerged at parties. I wade out of my depth and I can't swim. I will stay here, holding on to the handrail. Safe.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Night Side of the River

“I found that most people enjoyed talking about themselves more than hearing about me. Most people found me pleasant because I had no problem disassociating and letting them talk about themselves.”
― Reina Zoric, Good Game, Gamer Girl

“Eva had reached her limit for human interaction.
She could feel the climbing tension in her muscles. the sharp stab of irritation every time another person spoke, the rising desire to pluck one of the hairpins out of her braids and shove it through someone's throat.”
― Alicia Jasinska

“I was never one to connect. I've been that way my entire life. I went to work, kept my head down, and came home. I let old friendships fizzle. I orbited my family and all of you like a distant planet--there and yet nearly impossible to reach. I know I can't survive alone.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark

“There is no greater predictor of human well-being than the amount of social time we spend with one another.”
― Tom Rath, Life's Great Question: Discover How You Contribute To The World

“Alcohol, it was said, liberated people. But nobody here wanted liberation, or would have known what to do with it. Alcohol was usually drunk in an intimate atmosphere, and an intimate atmosphere was one fraught with problems. You were compelled to conform, to respect the spreading sense of closeness in a group. If you didn’t, you were punished. If you sat by yourself thinking in a room full of the fug of intimacy, people asked you what was wrong or if you were bored, and from there it would escalate until you were being blamed as an energy-suck and a gloomy bastard. When drinking, if someone made even the dumbest joke, you had to laugh.”
― Ryū Murakami, From the Fatherland, with Love

“You won't find me socializing, because I love my solitude. You won't find me in parties, because I love my loneliness.”
― Avijeet Das

“It's hard to talk to a person when you have nothing in common with him or her, you betray yourself.”
― Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

“I have rubbed shoulders with the rich, the powerful, and the armless. It’s how to network when handshakes aren’t an option.”
― Jarod Kintz, There are Two Typos of People in This World: Those Who Can Edit and Those Who Can't

“Love comes first, life second, followed by inspiration and humor. Pick your subject of conversation accordingly.”
― Monaristw

“A key to whether friendship is good is: Who am I being in this connection? Do I like me? (Never mind do I like you!) Am I liking how I'm showing up? Does this feel good to me?”
― Sonia Choquette

“Working and socializing with international people was prevalent in professional astronomy.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“I could be whatever they wanted me to be. A fun girl, a potential best friend, someone to tell secrets to over midnight snacks. This type of socializing was just me playing little roles for a few moments, but when I need to go all in, I can.”
― Vera Kurian, Never Saw Me Coming

“It’s too much peopling and it’s draining. I need to be alone to recharge.”
― Pamela M. Kelley, Nantucket Neighbors

“He had become lonely in his mind, he knew: he no longer encountered other people even in his thoughts.”
― Tom Crewe

“You asked me how I was doing, another social pleasantry. No one wants an honest answer to that one.”
― Margaret Atwood, Old Babes in the Wood: Stories

“And obviously my answer is no. My answer is: I have never in my entire life been free tonight, because if we haven't arranged it days in advance and I haven't spent the day mentally preparing myself for social interaction, I am not coming.

Your poorly arranged plans are of no interest to me.”
― Holly Smale, Cassandra in Reverse

“Apparently, if you look at how many numbers we're likely to store in our mobile phone, or how many names we're likely to list on a social networking site, it's rare even for city dwellers to exceed a couple of hundred. Social anthropologists delightedly point out that this is the size of the social group we would have had to handle in a large Stone Age village. According to them, we're all trying to cope with modern big-city life equipped only with a Stone Age social brain. We all struggle with anonymity.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“With each passing day the presence of others--which my soul always receives like a rude surprise--becomes more painful and distressing. To talk with people makes my skin crawl. If they show an interest in me, I run. If they look at me, I shudder. If.....”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“There's some really interesting research that shows that action towards climate change in fact doesn't address climate anxiety, it doesn't alleviate our sense of despair about climate change, that action in a collective is the essential thing. And so there's a sort of misnomer that happens. There's a misunderstanding that if we do some actions, we'll feel better. But in fact, it's the collective part that makes us feel better, and less so the action itself. And so the collective makes us feel efficacious, the collective has that social contagion factor of hope and joy and pleasure.”
― Sarah Jaquette Ray