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In today’s fast-paced world, stress is an ever-present companion for most people.
In America alone, around 40 million adults are diagnosed with anxiety disorders and depression brought on by stress. These have become the most common mental disorders in the country.
Although some types of stress offer some positive benefits, most people experience stress that stems from fear of failing, losing someone you care about, or of being doomed.
Some of the ways people have used to overcome stress include
Reading uplifting words can also be a powerful method of keeping calm when stress threatens to overwhelm you.
Words that inspire can soothe a frazzled mind and comfort the agitated soul. In this post, 165 anxiety quotes are handpicked for their ability to uplift people from their distress. We feature overcoming anxiety quotes, inspirational quotes for anxiety sufferers, and inspirational quotes about depression and anxiety.
First, let me present overcoming anxiety quotes to remind you that “this, too, shall pass.” The following quotes serve as an inspiration to always look for the silver lining in every dark cloud.
Overcoming Anxiety Quotes
- “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
- “You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” – Dan Millman
- “Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.” – Walter Anderson
- “P.S. You’re not going to die. Here’s the white-hot truth: if you go bankrupt, you’ll still be okay. If you lose the gig, the lover, the house, you’ll still be okay. If you sing off-key, get beat by the competition, have your heart shattered, get fired…it’s not going to kill you. Ask anyone who’s been through it.” – Danielle LaPorte
- “Smile, breathe, and go slowly.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
- “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” – Olin Miller
- “You can’t always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” – Wayne Dyer
- “Don’t worry if people think you’re crazy. You are crazy. You have that kind of intoxicating insanity that lets other people dream outside of the lines and become who they’re destined to be.” – Jennifer Elisabeth
- “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
- “It’s OKAY to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.” – Mandy Hale
- “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
- “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
- “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” – Kahlil Gibran
- “He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” – Shannon L. Alder
- “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.” – William Shakespeare
- “You have dug your soul out of the dark, you have fought to be here; do not go back to what buried you.” – Bianca Sparacino
- “Hey you, keep living. It won’t always be this overwhelming.” – Jacqueline Whitney
- “Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest taken between two deep breaths.” – Etty Hillesum
- “When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.” – Winston Churchill
- “If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.” – Dean Smith
- “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” – Henry Ward Beecher
- “Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” – Robert Eliot
- “Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything.” – Mary Hemingway
- “If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.” – Steven Hayes
- “What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.” – Martha Graham
- “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “If you can’t fly then run; if you can’t run then walk; if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer
- “At the end of the day, tell yourself gently: ‘I love you, you did the best you could today, and even if you didn’t accomplish all you had planned, I love you anyway.” – Anonymous
- “[Slow breathing] is like an anchor in the midst of an emotional storm: The anchor won't make the storm go away, but it will hold you steady until it passes.” – Russ Harris
- “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” – Steve Maraboli
- “Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” – Grenville Kleiser
- “Life is 10% of what you experience and 90% of how you respond to it.” – Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
- No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” – Virginia Woolf
- “I will breathe. I will think of solutions. I will not let my worry control me. I will not let my stress level break me. I will simply breathe. And it will be okay because I don't quit.” – Shayne McClendon
- “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” – Epictetus
- “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
- “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” – Anne Lamott
- “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” – Mary Tyler Moore
Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” – Mary Tyler Moore
- “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou
- “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
- “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “When you walk through a storm hold your head up high and don’t be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm is a golden sky And the sweet silver song of a lark.” – Oscar Hammerstein II
Inspirational Quotes for Anxiety Sufferers
- “Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” – William S. Burroughs
- “How can a person deal with anxiety? You might try what one fellow did. He worried so much that he decided to hire someone to do his worrying for him. He found a man who agreed to be his hired worrier for a salary of $200,000 per year. After the man accepted the job, his first question to his boss was, ‘Where are you going to get $200,000 per year?’ To which the man responded, ‘That's your worry’” – Max Lucado
- “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou
- “Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you because it will.” – Cheryl Strayed
- “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
- “When I let go of what I am, I become what I want to be.” – Lao Tzu
- “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “By being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.” – Edwin Elliot
- “For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” – Lily Tomlin
- “You have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou
- “More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “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
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
- “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “Stop your whining. If you are frightened, be silent. Whining is for prey. It attracts predators. And you are not prey.” – Robin Hobb
- “Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” – Roy Bennett
- “The elimination diet: Remove anger, regret, resentment, guilt, blame, and worry. Then watch your health, and life, improve.” – Charles F. Glassman
- “Don’t assume I’m weak because I have panic attacks. You’ll never know the amount of strength it takes to face the world every day.” – Unknown
- “Just because I can’t explain the feelings causing my anxiety doesn’t make them less valid.” – Lauren Elizabeth
- “I just give myself permission to suck. I find this hugely liberating.” – John Green
- “The universe doesn’t allow perfection.” – Stephen Hawking
- “Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming.” – Robert Tew
- “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
- “Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” – Erma Bombeck
- “I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, not just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future.” – Carl Sandburg
- “Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.” – Jodi Picoult
- “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
- “The way you tell your story to yourself matters.” – Amy Cuddy
- “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Henry S. Haskins
- “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 settle: Don’t finish crappy books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.” – Chris Brogan
- “Our stresses, anxieties, pains, and problems arise because we do not see the world, others or even ourselves as worthy of love.” – Prem Prakash
- “You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King
- “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
- “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “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
- “Anxiety happens when you think you have to figure out everything all at once. Breathe. You’re strong. You got this. Take it day by day.” – Karen Salmansohn
Anxiety happens when you think you have to figure out everything all at once. Breathe. You’re strong. You got this. Take it day by day.” – Karen Salmansohn
- “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
- “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Henry Stanley Haskins
- “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
- “We all have anxiety about things. We all have little insecurities, but eventually, you have to face your fears if you want to be successful, and everybody has some fear of failure.” – Nick Saban
- 19 Printable Anxiety Worksheets for Kids, Teens & Adults
- 129 Words of Encouragement for Someone with Anxiety
- How to Use the 3-3-3 Rule to Calm Your Anxiety
Inspirational Quotes About Depression and Anxiety
- “A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.” – Aesop
- “Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “Whatever is going to happen will happen, whether we worry or not.” – Ana Monnar
- “I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. ‘Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.’” – E. B. White
- “When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.” – Winston S. Churchill
- “Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency.” – Natalie Goldberg
- “The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.” – William James
- “Of all your troubles, great and small, the greatest are the ones that don't happen at all.” – Thomas Carlyle
- “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.” – The Dalai Lama
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.” – The Dalai Lama
- “It ain't no use putting up your umbrella till it rains!” – Alice Caldwell Rice
- “To live by worry is to live against reality.” – E. Stanley Jones
- “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
- “Worry in the dark can make it even darker.” – Camron Wright
- “You’re worried about what-ifs. Well, what if you stopped worrying?” – Shannon Celebi
- “Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” – Grenville Kleiser
- “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” – Amit Ray
- “Never let life’s hardships disturb you … no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages.” – Nichiren Daishonen
- “Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.” – Astrid Alauda
- “Nothing is permanent in this wicked world — not even our troubles.” – Charlie Chaplin
- “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James
- “Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.” – Pema Chodron
- “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
- “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, she became a butterfly.” – Barbara Haines Howett
- “Once you choose hope, anything is possible.” – Christopher Reeve
- “Keep yourself busy if you want to avoid depression. For me, inactivity is the enemy.” – Matt Lucas
- “Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.” – Madeleine L’Engle
- “There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” – C. S. Lewis
- “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
- “A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear (that results) from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl.” – Stephan Hoeller
- “The largest part of what we call ‘personality’ is determined by how we’ve opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness.” – Alain de Botton
- “If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” – Fred Rogers
- “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. The best is yet to come.” – Zig Ziglar
- “The only thing that could spoil a day was people. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.” – Ernest Hemingway
- “The other thing is that if you rely solely on medication to manage depression or anxiety, for example, you have done nothing to train the mind so that when you come off the medication, you are just as vulnerable to a relapse as though you had never taken the medication.” – Daniel Goleman
- “Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.” – William James
- “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
- “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
- “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” – Charles Spurgeon
- “In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived. How well we have loved. How well we have learned to let go.” – Jack Kornfield
- “Not everything that weighs you down is yours to carry.” – Anonymous
- “There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.” – Bernard-Paul Heroux
- “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford
- “Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby.” – Ruth E. Renkel
- “My anxiety doesn’t come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it.” – Hugh Prather
- “We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” – David Mamet
- “A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.” – Joyce Meyer
- “Some days, doing ‘the best we can’ may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect—on any front—and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.” – Fred Rogers
- “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
- “When you feel overwhelmed, remember: A little at a time is how it gets done. One thing, one task, one moment at a time.” – Anonymous
More Quotes on Anxiety
- “All this hurrying from place to place won’t bring you any relief, for you’re traveling in the company of your own emotions, followed by your troubles all the way.” – Seneca
- “Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.” – Glenn Turner
- “We labor at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our life because it is even more necessary not to have the leisure to stop and think. Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
- “Fear exists only in your mind, not in nature. Detach yourself, be strong, trust life, and become life.” – Maxime Lagacé
- “Cultivate calm and stillness: let go of anxiety as a lifestyle.” – Brené Brown
- “Life is 10 percent what you experience and 90 percent how you respond to it.” – Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
- “Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith. I don't agree at all. They are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the Passion of Christ.” – C.S. Lewis
- “Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by the degree of presence.” – Alan Watts
- “No amount of anxiety can change the future. No amount of regret can change the past.” – Karen Salmansohn
- “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, not to anticipate the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.” – Buddha
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, not to anticipate the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.” – Buddha
- “No longer forward nor behind I look in hope and fear; But grateful take the good I find, The best of now and here.” – John G. Whittier
- “Rather than relaxing and enjoying who we are and what we’re doing, we are comparing ourselves with an ideal and trying to make up for the difference.” – Tara Brach
- “Physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.” – Dalai Lama
- “I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me.” – Erica Jong
- “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Don’t worry about achieving. Don’t worry about perfection. Just be there each moment as best you can.” – Pema Chödrön
- “Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” – Corrie Ten Boom
- “Stepping out of the busyness is perhaps the most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit.” – Tara Brach
- “The more you pray, the less you'll panic. The more you worship, the less you worry. You'll feel more patient and less pressured.” – Rick Warren
- “Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. What is anything in life compared to the peace of the soul?” – Francis de Sales
- “To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self… And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one's self.” – Søren Kierkegaard
- “Stop being tormented by everyone else’s reaction to you.” – Joyce Meyer
- “Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it's often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.” – Brené Brown
- “I want to be the best version of myself for anyone who is going to someday walk into my life and need someone to love them beyond reason.” – Jennifer Elisabeth
- “True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied, for he that is wants nothing.” – Seneca
True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied, for he that is wants nothing.” – Seneca
- “Life is not a tension anywhere except in the minds of humanity.” – Osho
- “The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable.” – Oscar Wilde
- “If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty or back to pain and regret.” – Jim Carrey
- “Stop trying to be less of who you are. Let this time in your life cut you open and drain all of the things that are holding you back.” – Jennifer Elisabeth
- “Chronic anxiety is a state more undesirable than any other, and we will try almost any maneuver to eliminate it. Modern man is living in anxious anticipation of destruction. Such anxiety can be easily eliminated by self-destruction. As a German saying puts it: ‘Better an end with terror than a terror without end.” – Robert E. Neale
Final Thoughts on Anxiety Quotes
Stress is actually a good thing when it comes in small doses. Nevertheless, you have to be aware that if you allow yourself to be stressed all the time, your health and well-being suffer.
If stress is threatening to overwhelm your life in a way that debilitates you and prevents you from doing regular daily tasks, it would be a good idea to get professional help.
Well, how do you cope with stress? We’d appreciate learning about your experience. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
If any of the quotes resonated with you, we’d also like to hear about it.
Also, if you like any of the images featured in this post, sharing it through your favorite social media platform is greatly appreciated.
Let’s continue to find ways to be happy!
And if you want more inspirational quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 33 Social Anxiety Quotes to Deal with Uncomfortable Situations
- 51 Feeling Not Good Enough Quotes
- 97 Overthinking Quotes to Stop Living in Your Head
- 67 Stress and Tired Quotes When You’re Feeling Exhausted
Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then check out and recite these 57 affirmations for success.
