Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness QUOTES

1 " ...this is the reality of being human, that we have the capacity to love people--family, friends, and strangers--even if we profoundly disagree with them. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

2 " Solitude allows us to get comfortable being with ourselves, which makes it easier to be ourselves in interactions with others. That authenticity helps build strong connections. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

3 " Intimate, or emotional, loneliness is the longing for a close confidante or intimate partner—someone with whom you share a deep mutual bond of affection and trust. Relational, or social, loneliness is the yearning for quality friendships and social companionship and support. Collective loneliness is the hunger for a network or community of people who share your sense of purpose and interests. These three dimensions together reflect the full range of high-quality social connections that humans need in order to thrive. The lack of relationships in any of these dimensions can make us lonely, which helps to explain why we may have a supportive marriage yet still feel lonely for friends and community. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

4 " Solitude, paradoxically, protects against loneliness. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

5 " What is humanity, really, but a family of families? "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

6 " Right now, the world you are inheriting is locked in a struggle between love and fear. Fear manifests as anger, insecurity, and loneliness. Fear eats away at our society, leaving all of us less whole, so we teach you that every healthy relationship inspires love, not fear. Love shows up as kindness, generosity, and compassion. It is healing. It makes us more whole. The greatest gift to ever receive will come through these relationships. The most meaningful connections may last for a few moments, or for a lifetime, but each will be a reminder that we were meant to be a part of one another's lives, to lift one another up, to reach heights together, greater than any of us could reach on our own. Our hope is that you will always have friends in your lives who love and remind you of your innate beauty, strength, and compassion. Equally as important, we hope you will do the same for others. It pains us that we won't always be there for you when you feel lonely and sad, but we offer this simple prescription to remind you, you are loved. When those moments of loneliness and suffering arise, take both your hands and place them on your heart and close your eyes. Think about the friends and family who have been there for you throughout your life, in moments of joy, and also in the depths of disappointment, the people who have listened to you when you were sad, the people who believed in you, even when you lost faith in yourself, the people who have held you up, lifted you, and seeing you for who you really are. Feel their warmth and their kindness washing over you, filling you with happiness. Now, open your eyes. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

7 " Today it's widely understood that one of the most important factors in preventing and addressing toxic stress in children is healthy social connection. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

8 " Being connected to others gives us a stake in more than our own interests. It expands those interests to include our whole community and thus increases our motivation to work together. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

9 " When we become chronically lonely, most of us are inclined to withdraw, whether we mean to or not. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

10 " What often matters is not the quantity or frequency of social contact but the quality of our connections and how we feel about them. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

11 " Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. You need one because you are human. —Jane Howard, Families "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

12 " Being connected to others gives us a stake in more than our own interests. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

13 " To be at home is to be known. It is to be loved for who you are. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

14 " What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

15 " Small irritations can lead to exaggerated reactions. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

16 " Many people described what they were feeling as a lack of belonging. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

17 " Connection, not hatred, is the glue that makes us feel we all truly belong. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

18 " we need to more deeply appreciate the relationship between loneliness, social connection, and physical and emotional health. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

19 " Most of us are interacting with lonely people all the time, even if we don’t realize it. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness

20 " To be real is to be vulnerable, and this takes courage, especially if we believe that others will like us more if we hide or distort who we truly are. Technology can promote this belief by making it easy to pose online as someone braver, happier, better looking, and more successful than we really feel. These poses, in fact, are a form of social withdrawal. They may let us pretend that we’re more accepted, but the pretense only intensifies our loneliness. "

― Vivek H. Murthy , Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness