quotations about worry & worrying
Worry is fear in search of a cause.
JEFF PEPPER
Daily Triumph
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
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
Don't be forecasting evil unless it is what you can guard against. Anxiety is good for nothing if we can't turn it into a defense.
BRUCE LEE
Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
Action is worry's worst enemy.
AMERICAN PROVERB
A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.
JOHN LUBBOCK
The Use of Life
Worry is spiritual nearsightedness, a fumbling way of looking at little things, and of magnifying their value.
ANNA ROBERTSON BROWN
What is Worth While?
Worrisome thoughts reproduce faster than rabbits, so one of the most powerful ways to stop the spiral of worry is simply to disclose my worry to a friend.... The simple act of reassurance from another human being [becomes] a tool of the Spirit to cast out fear.
JOHN ORTBERG, JR.
The Me I Want to Be
The reason worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.
RALPH LOUIS WOODS
The Modern Handbook of Humor
One of the worst features about worrying is that it destroys our ability to concentrate. When we worry, our minds jump here and there and everywhere, and we lose all power of decision. However, when we force ourselves to face the worst and accept it mentally, we then eliminate all these vague imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we are able to concentrate on our problem.
WILLIS H. CARRIER
attributed, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Worrying ... is always useless. It is a form of inner considering--i.e. of identifying. It is a continual mixing up of negative imagination with a few facts and so makes only wrong connections.
MAURICE NICOLL
Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky
Worry-free living can be ours. Worry is merely an option. Take a lesson from our children. Toss your worries onto your Father. Then go outside and play.
RICK BROWN
"Let Jesus help you live worry free", Cypress Creek Mirror, February 17, 2016
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
KEITH CASERTA
Soul Searching
Worry is different from fear. If fear is like a raging fever, worry is a low-grade temperature. It nags at us, simmers in our souls, hovers in the back of our minds like a faint memory. We may fear certain realities, like death; we worry about vague possibilities. Worry distracts us more than paralyzes us. It is like a leaky faucet we never get around to fixing.
GERALD LAWSON SITTSER
The Will of God As a Way of Life
Worry in the dark can make it even darker.
CAMRON WRIGHT
The Rent Collector
Don't worry, be happy.
BOBBY MCFERRIN
"Don't Worry, Be Happy"
Worrying is an attempt to exert control over the future by thinking about it. In this way, worry is something that occurs on the inside, and its effects on the outside world are only imaginary.
CHAD LEJEUNE
The Worry Trap
Worry is a starting place, but not a staying place.
SYBIL MACBETH
Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God
Worms eat you when you're dead; worries eat you when you're alive.
JEWISH PROVERB
Put your energy into today and stop worrying about the past.
ERIN HUNTER
Rising Storm