Quotations: Anxiety & Worry

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Anxiety, Dread, Fear, & Worry

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“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” —John 14:27

“Anxiety and worry are often forms of no-ting, of trying to change, control, or make nonexistent a potential negative with the magic of worry.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice


Anxiety & Worry Can Be a Form of No-ting

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Quotations Various Sources

Listed Alphabetically

“90% of mistakes happen to people who are too afraid to make a mistake. This is a fact, not a speculation.” —Paulo Cohen

“A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work.” —John Lubbock

“A hut full of laughter is richer than a palace full of sadness.” —Buddhist saying

“A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.” —Charlotte Bronte

“Action conquers fear.” —Peter N. Zarlenga

“All fear is bondage.” —Anonymous

“All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.” —Herodotus

“Almost the first thing we think about is, what will people say; and nearly half the troubles and bothers of life may be traced to our anxiety on this score.” —Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.” —Luke 12:22

“Anxiety and worry are often forms of no-ting, of trying to change, control, or make nonexistent a potential negative with the magic of worry.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Anxiety cannot provide security.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Anxiety is a good tool but a bad master.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Anxiety is only the problem when it’s the solution.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.” —Mark 5:36

“Be afraid of what God thinks of you but no person.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Be willing to trust your instincts, especially if you cannot find answers elsewhere.” —Brian Koslow

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” —Matthew 6:33

“But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.” —Luke 8:50

“Castles are monuments to real fears.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Champions are propelled by desire, not compelled by fear.” —Denis Waitley

“Convince yourself that worrying about many situations will make them worse rather than improve them.” —Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 174

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” —Ambrose Redmoon

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” —Rosa Parks

“Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.” —Clare Booth Luce

“Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without it we can’t practice any other virtue with consistency.” —Maya Angelou

“Danger can never be overcome without taking risks.” —Latin proverb

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” —Mary Schmich

“Do something every day that you don’t want to do.” —Mark Twain

“Don’t dig up in doubt what you planted in faith.” —Elisabeth Elliot

“Don’t fight with the pillow, but lay down your head / And kick every worriment out of the bed.” —Edmund Vance Cooke

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

“Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.” —Colin Powell

“Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is already there.” —Carol Hamblet Adams

“Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths.” —Moliere

“Even with worry, you cannot make the future present.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.” —Frederic Chopin

“Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He’s going to be up all night anyway.” —Mary C. Crowley

“Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” —Henry Ward Beecher

“Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.” —George W. Addair

“Evils come not, then our fears are vain; And if they do fear but augments the pain.” —Benjamin Franklin

“Fear breeds fear.” —Byron Janis

“Fear does not stop death, it stops life.” —Vi Keeland

“Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles.” —Jean Toomer

“Fear is faith in failure.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Fear is faith that it won’t work out.” —Sister Mary Tricky

“Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.” —Swedish proverb

“Fear not: for I am with thee:” —Isaiah 43:5

“Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house.” —John Cheever

“Fear to let fall a drop and you spill a lot.” —Malay proverb

“Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.” —Tom Clancy

“Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear.” —Anthony Robbins

“For the most part, fear is nothing but an illusion. When you share it with someone else, it tends to disappear.” —Marilyn C. Barrick

“For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” —I Peter 2:20

“He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because he fears.” —Michel De Montaigne

“He who fears something gives it power over him.” —Arab proverb

“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He that can have patience can have what he will.” —Benjamin Franklin

“How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.” —Thomas Jefferson

“I have come to realize that all my trouble with living has come from fear and smallness within me.” —Angela L. Wozniak

“I like the man who faces what he must, / With steps triumphant and a heart of cheer; / Who fights the daily battle without fear.” —Sarah Knowles Bolton

“I’ve developed a new philosophy–I only dread one day at a time.” —Charlie Brown

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ―Nelson Mandela

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” —Dalai Lama XIV

“If evils come not, then our fears are in vain; and if they do, fear but augments the pain.” —Benjamin Franklin

“If I spent as much time doing the things I worry about getting done as I do worrying about doing them, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about.” —Beryl Pfizer

“If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.” —Horace

“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.” —Morris West

“If you suppress grief too much it can well redouble.” —Moliere

“In fact, most of what we call anxiety is overconcern about what someone thinks of you.” —Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 163.

“Instead of worry do one of these three: 1) Pray, 2) Problem-solve, 3) Cope.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Is worrying helping you to plan or problem-solve? If not, then it is wasting your energy and time.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“It’s better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.” —Jackie Joyner-Kersee

“It is never safe to look into the future with eyes of fear.” —E. H. Harriman

“It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down.” —George MacDonald

“Leap and the net will appear.” —Julia Cameron

“Learn to relax. Your body is precious, as it houses your mind and spirit. Inner peace begins with a relaxed body.” —Norman Vincent Peale

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” —Winston Churchill

“Letting go gives us freedom and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything—anger, anxiety, or possessions—we cannot be free.” —Thich Nhat Hanh

“Life begins where fear end.” —Osho

“Life is to be entered upon with courage.” —Alexis de Tocqueville

“May fear and dread not conquer me.” —Majjhima Nikaya, 6:8

“Men trip not on mountains, they stumble on stones.” —Chinese proverb

“Most people are paralyzed by fear. Overcome it and you take charge of your life and your world.” —Mark Victor Hansen

“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.” —Michel de Montaigne

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” —Lao Tzu

“Negative energy can never rescue you from other negatives.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“No day but today.” —Aphorism

“No human thing is of serious importance.” —Plato, The Republic

“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.” —Maya Angelou

“Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.” —John Dryden

“Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but worry, frustration and resentment.” —Dale Carnegie

“Our only security is our ability to change.” —John Lilly

“Passion can warm your heart or corrupt your soul.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” —John 14:27

“People who constantly worry are a worry.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“People who continually doubt are to be doubted.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“People who do not show trust are untrustworthy.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Playing it safe is the riskiest choice we can ever make.” —Sarah Ban Breathnach

“Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.” —Theodore N. Vail

“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” —Albert Camus

“Recognize worry as ineffective magic or prayer. Remove worry with stubborn results-testing. Replace worry with coping and problem-solving.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren’t enjoying today’s sunshine.” —William Feather

“Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.” —Henry Van Dyke

“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually, the confidence will follow.” —Carrie Fisher

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” —Babs Hoffman

“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” —William Shakespeare

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” —Matthew 6:34

“The great majority of the things we now make ourselves panicked about are self-created ‘dangers’ that exist almost entirely in our own imaginations.” —Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 171

“The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.” —Sophocles

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” —Elbert Hubbard

“The higher the intelligence and the more sensitive the individual, the more that is feared.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“The mere apprehension of a coming evil has put many into a situation of utmost danger.” —Luca

“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear–fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants beyond everything else is safety.” —H. L. Mencken

“The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.” —Robert Frost

“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” —Jim Goodwin

“The tyranny imposed on the soul by anger, or fear, or lust, or pain, or envy, or desire, I generally call ‘injustice.’“ —Plato, Laws

“The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about others things.” —Bertrand Russell (1872– 1970), British author, mathematician, and philosopher

“There is often less danger in the things we fear than in the things we desire.” —John C. Collins

“There is only one meaning of life: the act of living itself.” —Erich Fromm

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” —Epictetus

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” —Matthew 6:25

“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” —Elbert Hubbard

“To him who is afraid, everything rustles.” —Sophocles, Acrisius

“To lose patience is to lose the battle.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Underneath dysfunctional anxiety is insecurity.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Upon the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions, who when on the dawn of victory paused to rest, and there resting died.” —John Dretschmer

“We fail far more often by timidity than by over-daring.” —David Grayson

“We must have the courage to be happy.” —Henri Frederic Amiel

“We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.” —John F. Kennedy

“We will not know unless we begin.” —Howard Zinn

“We worry about tomorrow like it’s promised.” —Anonymous

“Wealth lost–something lost; Honor lost–much lost; Courage lost–all lost.” —German proverb

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” —Richard Bach

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” —Timothy Ferriss

“What worries you masters you.” —Haddon W. Robinson

“Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power.” —Stephen Covey

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.” —Winston Churchill

“When shall we live if not now?” —M. F. K. Fisher

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.” —Seneca

“Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.” —Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

“Who ranks as the highest? One who has left anxiety behind and, being firm in practice, has acquired stillness of mind.” —Dhammapada: The Highest, verses 385-386

“Who seeks shall find.” —Sophocles

“Why should he who is scared be careful?” —Menander

“Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, worrying won’t make it any better.” —Walt Disney

“Without danger you cannot get beyond danger.” —George Herbert

“Worry compounds the futility of being trapped on a dead-end street. Thinking opens new avenues.” —Cullen Hightower

“Worry does not remove problems. Worry feeds problems energy.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry doesn’t help tomorrow’s troubles, but it does ruin today’s happiness.” —Anonymous

“Worry is a darkroom where negatives develop.” —Anonymous

“Worry is a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“‘Worry’ is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Worry is negative conditioning.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is negative expectation.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is negative intention.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is negative planning.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is negative prayer.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is negative programming.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is negative scripting.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is negative visualization.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is the cross that we make for ourselves by over anxiety.” —Francois de Fenelon

“Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it falls due.” —W. R. Inge

“Worry is the opposite of happiness because happiness is carefree.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry is whining to yourself ahead of time.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worry itself is one of the most painful conditions.” —Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 165

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” —Leo Buscaglia

“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” —Swedish proverb

“Worry splits you between your effort and your result.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

“Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles; it empties today of its strengths.” —Corrie Ten Boom

“Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.” —Glenn Turner

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” —Christopher Columbus

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

“You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“You wouldn’t worry about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” —William S. Burroughs


  • Read for the best breathing exercise in the world to reduce anxiety and stress.

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Related Pages of Free Information

  1. Coping Skills: 12 Steps of Anxiety Reacting
  2. Coping Skills: Free Help
  3. Counseling Issues: Anxiety—Notes on
  4. Ego Issues: Worry & Ego

  • Read for the best breathing exercise in the world to reduce anxiety and stress.

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  • Read for the best breathing exercise in the world to reduce anxiety and stress.

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