Top +100 Anxiety Quotes to Bring You Calm and Strength

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If you’re here searching for “quotes about anxiety,” you might already know how tough and overwhelming anxiety can feel. You’re not alone in this journey, and many others have found comfort and strength in words that remind them they can make it through. Finding the right anxiety quote can help you feel seen, understood, and encouraged. In this article, we’ve compiled the top 100 anxiety quotes to provide calm, reassurance, and strength when you need it most.

Inspiring Quotes from Psychologist Rick Hanson

Rick Hanson, a renowned neuropsychologist and author, brings a wealth of insight into the nature of resilience, mindfulness, and well-being. Known for his compassionate, research-backed approach, Hanson has written several influential books, including Resilient and Just One Thing, from which these quotes are drawn. These powerful words are designed to help ease anxiety, promote calm, and remind us of the strength within ourselves

Top 100+ Anxiety Quotes: Inspiring Words to Ease Your Mind

1.   “You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” — Dan Millman
2.   “Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity.” — T.S. Eliot
3.   “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” — Benjamin Franklin
4.   “P.S. You’re not going to die. Here’s the truth: It feels like you are. It feels like a lion is chasing you. It feels like a bear has spotted you. But it’s just the anxiety. You’re safe.” — Glennon Doyle
5.   “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” — Kahlil Gibran
6.   “No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” — Virginia Woolf
7.   “Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.” — Walter Anderson
8.   “You can’t always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.” — Wayne Dyer
9.   “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
10.   “Anxiety happens when you think you have to figure everything out all at once. Breathe. You’re strong. You got this.” — Karen Salmansohn
11.   “It’s not time to worry yet.” — Harper Lee
12.   “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott
13.   “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” — Amit Ray
14.   “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
15.   “Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.” — Sonia Ricotti
16.   “Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” — Simon Sinek
17.   “It’s okay to be a glowstick: Sometimes we need to break before we shine.” — Unknown
18.   “There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.” — Bernard-Paul Heroux
19.   “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
20.   “There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.” — Michel de Montaigne
21.   “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” — Swedish Proverb
22.   “When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.” — Winston Churchill
23.   “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.” — William Shakespeare
24.   “Whatever is going to happen will happen, whether we worry or not.” — Ana Monnar
25.   “No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.” — Alan Watts
26.   “Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time.” — Corrie Ten Boom
27.   “Your mind is your instrument. Learn to be its master and not its slave.” — Remez Sasson
28.   “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” — Charles Spurgeon
29.   “You don’t drown by falling into water; you only drown if you stay there.” — Zig Ziglar
30.   “In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts.” — Fred Rogers
31.   “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
32.   “If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.” — E. Joseph Cossman
33.   “Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression.” — Grenville Kleiser
34.   “Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.” — Astrid Alauda
35.   “The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.” — William James
36.   “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” — Zig Ziglar
37.   “Not everything that weighs you down is yours to carry.” — Unknown
38.   “When you’re feeling anxious, remember: It’s just a thought, and a thought can be changed.” — Louise Hay
39.   “Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.” — C.H. Spurgeon
40.   “You wouldn’t let other people treat you the way you treat yourself.” — Cheryl Richardson
41.   “Stop worrying about what can go wrong and get excited about what can go right.” — Tony Robbins
42.   “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” — Susan Jeffers
43.   “Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you.” — Anaïs Nin
44.   “We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.” — Christopher Hitchens
45.   “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” — Dale Carnegie
46.   “Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind.” — Arthur Somers Roche
47.   “Worry is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” — Erma Bombeck
48.   “The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.” — Robin Sharma
49.   “Worrying is praying for something you don’t want.” — Robert Downey Jr.
50.   “Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it.” — Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
51.   “Be gentle with yourself, you’re doing the best you can.” — Unknown
52.   “No need to hurry, no need to sparkle, no need to be anybody but oneself.” — Virginia Woolf
53.   “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill
54.   “Worrying is a waste of imagination.” — Walt Disney
55.   “Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise.” — Victor Hugo
56.   “It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it.” — Hans Selye
57.   “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey
58.   “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” — Anonymous
59.   “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” — Henry Ward Beecher
60.   “The moment you stop trying to control everything is the moment you can finally breathe.” — Unknown
61.   “Anxiety is a beast we feed by giving it power.” — Unknown
62.   “Every day brings a choice: to practice stress or to practice peace.” — Joan Borysenko
63.   “Don’t 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
64.   “He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because he fears.” — Michel de Montaigne
65.   “Worry is interest paid on trouble before it’s due.” — William Ralph Inge
66.   “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” — George Bernard Shaw
67.   “Sometimes letting go is the best way to find peace.” — Donna Goddard
68.   “We are more often frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” — Seneca
69.   “It’s okay to not be okay. Just don’t stay that way.” — Unknown
70.   “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” — Lao Tzu
71.   “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” — Mahatma Gandhi
72.   “Let whatever you do today be enough.” — Unknown
73.   “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” — Dalai Lama
74.   “Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not obsess.” — Unknown
75.   “Overthinking is the art of creating problems that weren’t even there.” — Unknown
76.   “Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” — Oprah Winfrey
77.   “Anxiety is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but doesn’t get you very far.” — Jodi Picoult
78.   “The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
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.   “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” — Epictetus
81.   “When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.” — Haruki Murakami
82.   “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” — William James
83.   “Don’t believe everything you think.” — Byron Katie
84.   “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
85.   “Smile, breathe, and go slowly.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
86.   “Sometimes it’s okay if the only thing you did today was breathe.” — Yumi Sakugawa
87.   “It’s okay to make mistakes, to have bad days, to be less than perfect.” — Alison Malee
88.   “Anxiety is when the mind goes to war with itself.” — Unknown
89.   “You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.” — Roy T. Bennett
90.   “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” — Corrie Ten Boom
91.   “Let go of the thoughts that don’t make you strong.” — Karen Salmansohn
92.   “Sometimes you just have to stop worrying, wondering, and doubting. Have faith that things will work out.” — Unknown
93.   “The more you try to control something, the more it controls you. Free yourself, and let things flow naturally.” — Unknown
94.   “If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down.” — Buddha
95.   “Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.” — Sonia Ricotti
96.   “Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” — Roy T. Bennett
97.   “Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.” — Charlie Chaplin
98.   “Sometimes the worst place you can be is in your own head.” — Unknown
99.   “The best antidote to anxiety is action.” — Unknown
100.   “You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius

Stephanie Veillon is a creative director and instructional designer with over 15 years of experience supporting clients in the mindfulness, personal growth, well-being, learning, and psychology fields. She leverages technology, design, marketing, and best online practices to tell client stories and enhance student experience.