Quotes for anxiety and overthinking
For the mind that won't stop running the same loop. People have been lying awake over things that never happened for as long as there have been people, and some of them wrote it down beautifully. None of these will tell you to just relax.
For when the worry won't stop
The loop that plays the same scene over and over, as if the hundredth time will finally settle it.
The heaviest and most common troubles are the ones our imagination loads on us.
Montaigne, Essays
Good Lord, are there not enough real troubles without inventing imaginary ones?
George Sand, Letters
It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand.
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
Jerome wrote this in a comic novel about three men and a dog on the Thames, which is fitting. Worrying ahead of time is a little absurd when you look at it straight: you pay for the bad thing twice, and sometimes for a bad thing that never turns up at all.
You can be relaxed and dedicated. Just because you worry more, doesn't mean you care more.
James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter
A lot of worry hides behind the feeling that stopping would be careless. It wouldn't be. You can stop turning the thing over and still care about it just as much.
For the 3 a.m. spiral
Everything is worse in the dark. Things that were manageable at lunch become catastrophes by midnight.
What is true by lamplight is not always true in the sun.
Joseph Joubert, Thoughts, Essays and Maxims
What is fear at night is curiosity by day.
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
In my solitude I have seen things very clearly that are not true.
Antonio Machado, New Songs
That is the thing about the late night version of a problem. It feels like clarity. It is usually just tiredness with the lights off.
In the multitude of my thoughts within me, your comforts delight my soul.
Psalm 94:19, World English Bible
For when the fear is bigger than the thing
It's often been noticed that fear is bigger from a distance and shrinks as you get closer.
Alain, Eighty-One Chapters on the Mind and the Passions
Honestly, the climb is not as steep as we pictured. Imagination always gets there ahead of reality.
Baltasar Gracián, El Criticón
As a rule, it's true, the new things that alarm us turn out perfectly fine.
Marcel Proust, Time Regained
The phone call, the appointment, the email you have been drafting in your head for three days. Usually the dread is the hardest part, and the thing itself is over in ten minutes.
Pay attention to your fear. It often has good reason. Don't get over it. Get under it.
Derek Sivers, sive.rs
Not every worry is noise, though. Sometimes it is pointing at something real that needs doing. Sivers' advice is to look underneath it and find out which.
For coming back to right now
Worry almost always lives in the future. The present moment, however uncomfortable, is usually survivable.
Take a breath, now. Take another. Feel air in your lungs.
Julian Gough, End Poem
This one comes from an unexpected place: the poem at the end of Minecraft. Plenty of people have found it there at exactly the right moment.
A gift you can give yourself right now: Stop what you're doing. Close your eyes. For the next 60 seconds, just breathe.
James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter
Observe now. Act later.
Derek Sivers, sive.rs
For letting a little go
Who can be still until their mud settles and the water is cleared by itself?
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Overthinking is stirring the water to see the bottom. It never works. Stop stirring and it clears on its own, which is annoying advice and also true.
Let the worry go; it will all work out. And if the sky falls in, at least a lark will get away.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Poems
Things without remedy should be without regard; what is done, is done.
William Shakespeare
For being kinder to an anxious mind
An anxious mind is not a broken one. It is a mind trying too hard to keep you safe.
If my mind is my own, why do I always find it so slow to comfort me and so sharp at doing me harm?
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Selected Works
Written by a nun in seventeenth century Mexico, and it could have been written last night. If you've ever wondered why your own head is so much better at criticism than reassurance, you're in good company.
Treat this pain with compassion, like you would with a friend who is suffering.
Leo Babauta, Zen Habits
Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but a kind word makes it glad.
Proverbs 12:25, World English Bible
If it's more than worry
Everyone worries, and a few nights of overthinking are part of being a person. But if the worry is there most days, if it's hard to control, if it keeps you from sleeping, working or enjoying things, or if it comes with panic, that may be an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are common, and they are among the most treatable conditions there are. Please talk to a doctor or a therapist. Quotes can keep you company. They aren't a treatment.
If you're thinking about ending your life or hurting yourself, reach out right now. In the US, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
For the ordinary anxious days, Dailies has topics written for exactly this, including When the worry won't sit down, Come back to right now and Let a little go. A line arrives quietly, at a moment you didn't pick, and asks nothing of you.
Questions
What is a good quote for anxiety?
Montaigne's "The heaviest and most common troubles are the ones our imagination loads on us" is one many people keep. For the late night version of anxiety, Joseph Joubert's "What is true by lamplight is not always true in the sun" is hard to beat.
Is there a Bible verse about anxiety?
Several. Proverbs 12:25 reads "Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but a kind word makes it glad," and Psalm 94:19 reads "In the multitude of my thoughts within me, your comforts delight my soul." Both are from the World English Bible.
Why does overthinking get worse at night?
At night you're tired, there is nothing to distract you, and nothing can be done about most problems until morning, so the mind goes around them instead. Worries often look smaller in daylight. If it happens most nights, it's worth mentioning to a doctor.
Can quotes help with anxiety?
They can help in a small way: a good line can interrupt a loop, or remind you that other people have felt the same thing. They are company, not treatment. If anxiety is affecting your daily life, talk to a doctor or therapist.
Keep reading
Start today with something good.
Set it up once. Dailies takes it from there.
