Quotes about Worry
“If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset.”
J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 88)
“Let’s stop lying to ourselves, saying ‘it will all be better in the future,’ because the present isn’t the problem. None of the external things are. It’s our emotions at the root of discomfort. They are within us. They are our responsibility to work on.”
Ryan Holiday, Daily Stoic Blog
“All the things you’re worried about potentially happening in the future are in fact happening right now somewhere in the world. All the things you’re not sure you could handle… people have been handling since the beginning of time. Nothing new looms, only reruns of what you’ve already experienced or read about in the annals of history.”
Ryan Holiday, Daily Stoic Blog
“The potential of future suffering is not a reason to suffer now. On the contrary, it’s a reason to be present now. To be good now. To love and live, now. That future may come…and you’ll meet it. If there’s something you can do to prevent it, do it. But hopelessness and despair and dread and anger? They do nothing for nobody–least of all you.”
Ryan Holiday, Daily Stoic Blog
“Fear is not going to protect you. Action is. Worrying is not going to protect you. Preparing is. Overthinking is not going to protect you. Understanding is. When we hold onto fear and pain after something traumatic has passed, we do it as a sort of safety net. We falsely believe that if we constantly remind ourselves of all the terrible things that we didn’t see coming, we can avoid them. Not only does this not work, but it also makes you less efficient at responding to them if they do.”
Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You (Page 168)
“If your mind has developed a certain cast—the habit of panicking, then it won’t matter how good things get for you. You’re still primed for panic. Your mind will still find things to worry about, and you’ll still be miserable. Perhaps more so even, because now you have more to lose.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 289)
“It’s ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest—by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things.”
Seneca, via The Daily Stoic (Page 250)
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“The time we spend worrying is actually time we’re spending trying to control something that is out of our control. Time invested in something that is within our control is called work. That’s where our most productive focus lies.”
Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 99)
“If the problem can be solved, why worry? And if the problem can’t be solved, then worrying will do you no good.”
Shantideva, via The Practice (Page 99)
“If you’re going to worry about something, worry about the cost of not pursuing your dream.”
Chris Guillebeau, The Happiness of Pursuit (Page 222)
“Getting worked up, getting excited, nervously pacing—these intense, pained, and anxious moments show us at our most futile and servile. Staring at the clock, at the ticker, at the next checkout lane over, at the sky—it’s as if we all belong to a religious cult that believes the gods of fate will only give us what we want if we sacrifice our peace of mind.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 43)
