Anxiety can be a crippling and overpowering feeling that leaves us powerless and preoccupied by unpleasant thoughts and feelings.
But there is good news: we are not alone in this.
Many great minds throughout history have shared their expertise and experiences with anxiety, providing insights and support to others who battle with it.
We’ve gathered a list of anxiety quotes to help you calm down, recover and manage your difficulties, concerns and anxieties.
Anxiety Quotes
I just give myself permission to suck. I find this hugely liberating. ~ John Green.
The way you tell your story to yourself matters. ~ Amy Cuddy.
Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere. ~ Erma Bombeck.
The universe doesn’t allow perfection. ~ Stephen Hawking.
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. ~ Aesop.
Smile, breathe, and go slowly. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.
Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future. ~ Deepak Chopra.
Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on. ~ Eckhart Tolle.
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. ~ Walter Anderson.
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.
Overcoming Anxiety Quotes
Not everything that weighs you down is yours to carry. ~ Unknown.
It ain’t no use putting up your umbrella till it rains! ~ Alice Caldwell Rice.
Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. ~ Arthur Somers Roche.
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. ~ Steven Hayes.
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. ~ Anne Lamott.
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. ~ Marcus Aurelius.
What else does anxiety about the future bring you but sorrow upon sorrow? ~ Thomas Kempis.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Henry S. Haskins.
A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you. ~ Joyce Meyer.
Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the most wonderful things that will ever happen to us. ~ Nicole Reed.
Also read: 35 Most Painful Betrayal Quotes and Sayings and 50 Pain Quotes to Stay Hopeful and Calm
Inspiring Anxiety Quotes
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings. ~ Pearl S. Buck.
You’re worried about what-ifs. Well, what if you stopped worrying? ~ Shannon Celebi.
Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety; after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly. ~ Ali Ibn Abi Talib.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems. ~ Epictetus.
We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. ~ Joseph Campbell.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff. ~ Robert Eliot.
You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt.
More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate. ~ Roy T. Bennett.
Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions. ~ Pema Chodron.
Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming. ~ Robert Tew.
Best Anxiety Quotes
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. ~ Mother Teresa.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Henry Stanley Haskins.
Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. ~ Swedish proverb.
Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. ~ Natalie Goldberg.
You’ve tried enough. Maybe it’s time to let go. ~ Unknown.
Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far. ~ Jodi Picoult.
Whatever is going to happen will happen, whether we worry or not. ~ Ana Monnar.
Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. ~ Søren Kierkegaard.
My anxiety doesn’t come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it. ~ Hugh Prather.
Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it. ~ Kahlil Gibran.
Motivating Anxiety Quotes
By being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before. ~ Edwin Elliot.
There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea. ~ Bernard-Paul Heroux.
To live by worry is to live against reality. ~ E. Stanley Jones.
You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you. ~ Dan Millman.
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. ~ Maya Angelou.
Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy. ~ Roy T. Bennett.
You can’t always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside. ~ Wayne Dyer.
How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened. ~ Thomas Jefferson.
He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. ~ Shannon L. Alder.
Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light. ~ Madeleine L’Engle.
Inspirational Anxiety Quotes
You have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer. ~ Eckhart Tolle.
Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside of you that is greater than any obstacle. ~ Christian D. Larson.
Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries. ~ Astrid Alauda.
Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency. ~ Natalie Goldberg.
Worrying about outcomes over which I have no control is punishing myself before the universe has decided whether I ought to be punished. ~ Sherry Thomas.
When I let go of what I am, I become what I want to be. ~ Lao Tzu.
Many of us feel stress and get overwhelmed not because we’re taking on too much, but because we’re taking on too little of what really strengthens us. ~ Marcus Buckingham.
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. ~ Benjamin Franklin.
For fast acting relief, try slowing down. ~ Lily Tomlin.
When you feel overwhelmed, remember: A little at a time is how it gets done. One thing, one task, one moment at a time. ~ Unknown.
People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them. ~ George Bernard Shaw.
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. ~ William S. Burroughs.
Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create. ~ Roy Bennett.
Powerful Anxiety Quotes
You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway. ~ Steve Maraboli.
She has been through hell. So believe me when I say, fear her when she looks into a fire and smiles. ~ E. Corona.
Of all your troubles, great and small, the greatest are the ones that don’t happen at all. ~ Thomas Carlyle.
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. The best is yet to come. ~ Zig Ziglar.
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. ~ Epictetus.
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. ~ William James.
Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic. ~ Anais Nin.
Today’s a perfect day for a whole new start. Let go of fear and free your mind. It’s time to open your heart. ~ Chris Butler.
The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. ~ William James.
Quotes about Anxiety
I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth diminishing your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear. ~ Steve Maraboli.
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Stop your whining. If you are frightened, be silent. Whining is for prey. It attracts predators. And you are not prey. ~ Robin Hobb.
In order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did and why you no longer need to feel it. ~ Mitch Albom.
Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy at the moment. ~ J. Donald Walters
Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it – just as we have learned to live with storms. ~ Paulo Coelho.
Once you choose hope, anything is possible. ~ Christopher Reeve.
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength. ~ Charles Spurgeon.
Just because I can’t explain the feelings causing my anxiety doesn’t make them less valid. ~ Lauren Elizabeth.
Profound Anxiety Quotes
Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have. ~ Norman Vincent Peale.
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. ~ Wayne Dyer.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, she became a butterfly. ~ Barbara Haines Howett.
Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby. ~ Ruth E. Renkel.
No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself. ~ Virginia Woolf.
Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest taken between two deep breaths. ~ Etty Hillesum.
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath. ~ Amit Ray.
Worry in the dark can make it even darker. ~ Camron Wright.
Handle Anxiety Quotes
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.
We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie. ~ David Mamet.
Whatever you do, never run back to what broke you. ~ Frank Ocean.
Life is 10% of what you experience and 90% of how you respond to it. ~ Dorothy M. Neddermeyer .
You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. ~ Martin Luther King.
There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind. ~ C. S. Lewis.
Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. ~ Henry Ward Beecher.
It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase. ~ David Foster Wallace.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. ~ Maya Angelou.
What people in the world think of you is really none of your business. ~ Martha Graham.
If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times. ~ Dean Smith.
Keep yourself busy if you want to avoid depression. For me, inactivity is the enemy. ~ Matt Lucas.
Anxiety is a lot like a toddler. It never stops talking, tells you you’re wrong about everything, and wakes you up at 3 a.m. ~ Unknown.
So these were the 105 quotes about Anxiety.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other popular blog posts on the topics of Being Genuine quotes and Being Different quotes and Social Anxiety quotes.
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