quotations about worry & worrying
Worry is discounting possible future sorrows so that the individual may have present misery.
WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN
The Improvement Era, vol. 11, 1908
No matter how heavy your burden is now, the only way that you'll be able to manage it without subjecting yourself to excessive worrying is to accept what lies ahead.
ANTHONY JOSHUA
Overcoming Anxiety: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Worry is a starting place, but not a staying place.
SYBIL MACBETH
Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God
We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still. We deserve a better press, in my view.
LEWIS THOMAS
The Medusa and the Snail
Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's trouble.
ANONYMOUS
The Speaker's Quote Book
That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.
CHINESE PROVERB
The Greeks said that worry is two opposing forces that tear a person apart. The Saxons say worry is like a wolf with a stranglehold on a man's throat. Worry chokes our physical strength, our creative powers, our spiritual growth and our joy.
TOM O'BRIEN
"Focus your thoughts on God", Ellwood City Ledger, March 24, 2017
As for what has already happened, you can't do anything about it, so it is pointless to waste time thinking about it--to worry is an exercise in mindlessness. As for what might happen, we must remember that we don't know the future. Many things we worry about never happen, so many of our worries waste our energy. I know this is easier said than done, but realizing the pointlessness of worry is a start.
JOHN G. MESSERLY
"How To Cope With This Stressful Presidency", Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, March 6, 2017
The first thing you have to realize about worrying is that it is a choice, not an inevitability. Some people think that worry comes naturally when you have problems. That's not true. You worry because you choose to be worried.
ANTHONY JOSHUA
Overcoming Anxiety: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
The reason worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.
RALPH LOUIS WOODS
The Modern Handbook of Humor
Every moment of worry weakens the soul for its daily combat.
ANNA ROBERTSON BROWN
What is Worth While?
Action is worry's worst enemy.
AMERICAN PROVERB
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worth while,
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.
GEORGE ASAF
"Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-bag"
From its earliest days, worrying has been seen as a character weakness, a frailty, a self-indulgence; something that should be avoided, controlled or cured. That explains why worrying -- where the connotation with fear is never far away -- was originally seen as a female complaint, a shortcoming that the Victorian male, with his fabled stiff-upper lip, could certainly never admit to. But as a lifelong male worrier, with as many male friends who admit to similar bouts of insecurity as female, I'm convinced that men have been worrying for just as long as women. It just took them the best part of a century to admit it.
FRANCIS O'GORMAN
Daily Mail, July 24, 2015
Worry is fear in search of a cause.
JEFF PEPPER
Daily Triumph
Worrying is designed to weaken us so that we don't overcome.
ANGELA NAYLOR
No One Sees My Pain
Excessive worrying is like walking through a foggy street at night; you have no idea what lies ahead and the darkness and dampness create a sense of dread that is difficult to ignore. The actual landscape is easy to navigate, but because you chose to walk into the foggy portion of the street, you won't be able to see anything clearly.
ANTHONY JOSHUA
Overcoming Anxiety: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
The idea that worrying is a fruitful endeavour is predictive of excessive worrying.
ERIC RASSIN
Thought Suppression
You can't wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.
PAT SCHROEDER
attributed, Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior
People who are prone to worrying are soft-wired to pay attention to threatening news, thereby building up a library of evidence in their brains that worrying is necessary. Think about it. On any given day, there are so many threatening things happening in the world -- anything from new viruses, terrorist attacks, or political conflicts to a hostile email or upcoming storm are all real events. Yet, if you only pay attention to the threats, you have no space left in your brain to process anything else. Threat becomes your reality, and worry becomes your justifiable response. Anyone telling you to give up your worry will sound out of touch, to say the least.
SRINI PILLAY
"Managing worry in generalized anxiety disorder", Harvard Health Publications, February 17, 2016