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

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If you explore beneath shyness or party chit-chat, you can sometimes turn a dull exchange into an intriguing one. I've found this to be particularly true in the case of professors or intellectuals, who are full of fascinating information, but need encouragement before they'll divulge it.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The bashful are always aggressive at heart.

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

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The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.

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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.

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Happiness hates the timid! So does science!

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Many a man is praised for his reserve and so-called shyness when he is simply too proud to risk making a fool of himself.

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The first symptom of love in a young man is shyness; the first symptom in a woman, it's boldness.

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

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I used to hang out by the food table at parties because you don't have to talk to anybody. If you do then you can talk about the food.

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Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.

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All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense.

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