Anxiety Quotes

Anxiety Quotes to Help Relax Your Mind and Ease Fears

These anxiety quotes can help during the most trying of times.

Anxiety is difficult to discuss and even more difficult to live with.

If you’re hoping to find a way to ease your anxiousness and decompress from the thoughts stirring around your mind, these anxiety quotes will help you find some much-needed release when you feel as if you’re spinning out of control.

According to figures from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 18.1% of the population every year.

Anxiety disorders cost the U.S. more than $42 billion a year.

Anxiety is an experience that causes fear, worry, apprehension, and nervousness.

In some cases, anxiety can affect your life and interfere with your daily activities such as schooling, work, and relationships.

Anxiety is a normal experience. Everyone experiences feelings of anxiety from time to time.

In some cases, the demands of life can make experiencing anxiety more frequent.

Sometimes anxiety can be a good thing.

It can motivate you to finish your tasks and work harder for a goal and it can alert you when in dangerous situations.

Anxiety can help you recognize future threats and challenges, giving you time to prepare for them.

Although dealing with anxiety can be a tough battle, the good news is that it can be defeated.

Empowering quotes like the ones below act like mini-therapy sessions.

When you read a quote and it feels good, gives you hope, or eases your worries, that quote is good for you.

One mantra that can help is, “If that happens, I’ll find a way to deal with it.”

Trusting that you’ll have the resources you need when you need them reduces worry and helps you enjoy today.

Here is our collection of inspirational, calm, and uplifting anxiety quotes, anxiety sayings, and anxiety proverbs to encourage you when facing it.

1. “Everything you have ever wanted, is sitting on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

2. “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” – Charles Spurgeon (For more on this topic, here is a collection of depression quotes.)

3. “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” – Steve Maraboli

4. “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.” ― Anaïs Nin (for more Anaïs Nin quotes, read this)

5. “Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” – Wayne W. Dyer

6. “Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.”― Jodi Picoult

7. There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature. –Henry David Thoreau

8. What else does anxiety about the future bring you but sorrow upon sorrow? – Thomas a Kempis

9. “If you’re going through hell keep going.” – Winston Churchill

10. “Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”– William James

11. “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

12. “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

13. Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. – T. S. Eliot

14. “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

15. “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

16. “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. The best is yet to come.” – Zig Ziglar

17. “Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming.” – Robert Tew

18. “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

19. “Nothing is permanent in this wicked world — not even our troubles.” — Charlie Chaplin

20. “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” — George Bernard Shaw

21. Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety. – Plato

22. “Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.” – Sonia Ricotte

23. “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” – Pema Chodron

24. “Keep walking through the storm. Your rainbow is waiting on the other side.” – Heather Stillufsen

25. “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

26. “It’s not time to worry yet.” — Harper Lee

27. “Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.” — Walter Anderson

28. “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

29. “Act the way that you want to feel.” — Gretchen Rubin

30. “It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.” — Hans Selye

31. “I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

32. “You can’t always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” — Wayne Dyer

33. “We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell

34. “Our stresses, anxieties, pains, and problems arise because we do not see the world, others, or even ourselves as worthy of love.” ― Prem Prakash

35. “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” ― Kahlil Gibran

36. “He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” ― Shannon L. Alder

37. “He felt like normal. Filled with anxiety, dread, sure. But even that wasn’t unusual…” ― John Ajvide Lindqvist

38. “Living a life somewhere else in your mind is nothing more than being a prisoner where you are.” ― Shannon L. Alder

39. We acquire the strength we have overcome. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

40. “While fear depletes power, faith gives wings for the soul’s elevation.” ― T.F. Hodge

41. “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”― Søren Kierkegaard

42. “I know what it’s like to be afraid of your own mind.” –Dr.Reid

43. “Just because I can’t explain the feelings causing my anxiety, doesn’t make them less valid.” –Lauren Elizabeth

44. “It’s sad, actually, because my anxiety keeps me from enjoying things as much as I should at this age.” – Amanda Seyfried

45. “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt

46. “No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” — Virginia Woolf

47. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

48. “Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else’s snakes can ever be as awful.”

― Tove Jansson

49. Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself. ~Samuel Butler

50. “We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.” ― Christopher Hitchens

51. “You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.” —Wayne Dyer

52. “Whatever is going to happen will happen, whether we worry or not.”– Ana Monnar

53. “Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.”—William S. Burroughs

54. “It ain’t no use putting up your umbrella till it rains!”– Alice Caldwell Rice

55. “You don’t have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you.”—Dan Millman

56. “Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.”– Astrid Alauda

57. “My anxiety doesn’t come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it.”—Hugh Prather

58. “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn

59. “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.”—William Shakespeare

60. “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” —William James

61. “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson

62. “Worry in the dark can make it even darker.”– Camron Wright

63. “You have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.”– Eckhart Tolle

64. “There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.”– C. S. Lewis

65. “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

66. “Rule number one: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two: It’s all small stuff.”—Robert S. Eliot

67. “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”– Benjamin Franklin

68. “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

69. “Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.”– Roy T. Bennett

70. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”—Henry Stanley Haskins

71. “It’s OKAY to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.” – Mandy Hale

72. “Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” – Erma Bombeck

73. “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

74. “The way you tell your story to yourself matters.” – Amy Cuddy

75. “If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.” – Dean Smith

76. “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

77. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou

78. “Of all your troubles, great and small, the greatest are the ones that don’t happen at all.” – Thomas Carlyle

79. “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

80. “Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency.” – Natalie Goldberg

81. “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” – Amit Ray

82. “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.” – Epictetus

83. “You are the biggest enemy of your own sleep.” – Pawan Mishra

84. “Anxiety is the handmaiden of contemporary ambition.” – Alain de Botton

85. “If you want to conquer overthinking, bring your mind to the present moment and reconnect it with the immediate world.” – Amit Ray

86. “When I don’t have something to worry about, I worry. Nothing comes so naturally to a human being as anxiety and worry.” – Brian Richardson

87. “The pleasure of living and the pleasure of the orgasm are identical. Extreme orgasm anxiety forms the basis of the general fear of life.” – Wilhelm Reich

88. “Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate.” – Søren Kierkegaard

89. “Each moment of worry, anxiety or stress represents lack of faith in miracles, for they never cease.” – T.F. Hodge

90. “Silence is a lie that screams at the light.” – Shannon L. Alder

91. “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” — Swedish proverb

92. “How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.” — Thomas Jefferson

93. “Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” — Robert Eliot

 94. “A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.” — Joyce Meyer

95. “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

96. “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” — Henry Ward Beecher

97. “There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” — Epictetus

98. “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

99. “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

100. “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

101. “Hey you, keep living. It won’t always be this overwhelming.” — Jacqueline Whitney

102. “What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.” — Martha Graham

103. “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

104. “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

105. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” — Steven Hayes

106. “Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest taken between two deep breaths.” — Etty Hillesum

107. “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

108. “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

109. “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

110. “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

111. “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

112. “Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.” – Ruth E. Renkel

113. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford

114. “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

115. 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

116. “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

117. “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

118. “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

119. “Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.” – Madeleine L’Engle

120. “Once you choose hope, anything is possible.” – Christopher Reeve

121. “Smile, breathe, and go slowly.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

122. “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” – Olin Miller

123. “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.

124. “[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

125. “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

126. “Life is 10% of what you experience and 90% of how you respond to it.” – Dorothy M. Neddermeyer

127. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I want to be.” – Lao Tzu

128. “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.

129. “By being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.” – Edwin Elliot

130. “For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” – Lily Tomlin

131. “Now is the age of anxiety.” – W. H. Auden

132. “Neither comprehension nor learning can take place in an atmosphere of anxiety.” – Rose Kennedy

133. “Worrying is like walking around with an umbrella waiting for the rain.” – Unknown

134. “Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess.” – Unknown

135. “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” – Kahil Gibran

136. “If it’s not going to matter in five years, don’t spend five minutes being upset about it.” – Unknown

137. “Flowers grow back even after the harshest winters. You will too.” – Jennae Cecilia

138. “There are these moments you think you won’t survive. And then you survive.” – David Levithan

139. “If it’s out of your hands, it deserves freedom from your mind too.” – Unknown

140. “You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens.” – Mandy Hale

141. “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:31

142. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” – 2 Timothy 1:7

143. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.” – John 14:1

144. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9

145. “The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.” – Psalm 34: 17

146. “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” – Psalm 94:19

147. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6

148. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:6-7

149. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30

150. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27

151. “Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.” — Saint Francis de Sales

152. “Although anxiety is part of life, never let it control you.” — Paulo Coelho

153. “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” — Solomon

154. “Anxiety beclouds the future.” — Abraham Lincoln

155. “Nothing can be meaner than the anxiety to live on, to live on anyhow and in any shape.” — George Santayana

156. “Oh, how great peace and quietness would he possess who should cut off all vain anxiety and place all his confidence in God.” — Thomas a Kempis

157. “I’m just suggesting that when you’re faced with fear and anxiety, don’t medicate. Meditate instead.” — Russell Simmons

158. “I believe a lot of disease comes from anxiety, loneliness.” — Tom Cochrane

159. “Anxiety, it just stops your life.” — Amanda Seyfried

160. “Grief and constant anxiety kill nearly as many women as men die on the battlefield.” — Bill Vaughan

161. “I made things a lot harder than they needed to be out of fear and anxiety.” — Sutton Foster

162. “Freedom without security portends chaos, perpetual anxiety and fear.” — Zygmunt Bauman

163. “When I was young I was very shy and that was my personality. I was a pretty sensitive kid and quite neurotic, filled with a lot of anxiety.” — Bruce Springsteen

164. “I know content-wise I leave nothing to chance. I have no anxiety about what I’m going to do once I’m out on stage.” — Jay Mohr

165. “Status and class and social anxiety and perhaps social code are all released when you look at paintings of powerful individuals from the past.” — Kehinde Wiley

166. “The struggle for life is not only the material and economic one. Comfort is no protection from anxiety.” — Michelangelo Antonioni

167. “That’s my anxiety dream. I go to the library and all the books on my subject are out.” — Judy Blume

168. “Anxiety, depression, and suicide don’t discriminate based on how much money you have – thought it might make it easier for you to get help.” — Chelsea Manning

169. “For those wondering how to deal with anxiety and depression, the first thing to consider is what you’re putting into your mouth.” — John Cleese

170. “Anxiety projection can and does occur – in myth, in music, in fiction, and in the doctor’s office too. That doesn’t make it the basis of everything.” — Robert Bringhurst

Hopefully, these anxiety quotes have helped calm your mind and given you the courage to deal with your anxiety and fears.

Did you enjoy these anxiety quotes?

Which of the quotes was your favorite?

Tell us in the comment section below.

We would love to hear all about it.