The Mighty Logo

40 Quotes That Help Me When I'm Feeling Anxious

The most helpful emails in health
Browse our free newsletters

I love inspirational quotes. They are especially useful if I’m feeling down, stuck, anxious or unmotivated.

Inspirational quotes have also help guide me through the darkest days of my depression and the peaks and troughs of my anxiety, like a guiding light, holding my hand until I came out the other side.

Here are some of my favorites (40 to be precise):

1. “Life is not a dress rehearsal. Every day, you should have at least one exquisite moment.
” — Sally Karioth

2. “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” — Carl Jung

3. “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone… can be our teacher.” — Pema Chodron

4. “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

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

6. “If you’re going through hell keep going.” — Winston Churchill

7. “The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” — Henry Miller

8. “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.” –Proverb

9. “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

10. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” — Lao Tzu

11. “Everything you have ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.” — George Addair

12. “Smile, breathe and go slowly.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

13. “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

14. “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney

15. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop

16. “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.

17. “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” — Confucius

18. “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

19. “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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

21. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney

22. “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

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

24. “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” — Jamie Paolinetti

25. “Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated agent of human change.” — Bob Kerrey

26. “Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” — Buddha

27. “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

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

29. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” — Maya Angelou

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

31. “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

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

33. “Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” — A.A. Milne

34. “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

35. “There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.” — Sylvia Plath

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

37. “For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” — Lily Tomlin

‎‎38. “If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” — Mary Engelbreit

39. “A pleasure a day keeps stress away.” — Ethel Roskies

40. “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” — T.S. Eliot

Image via Thinkstock.

This post originally appeared on Reflections From a Redhead.

Originally published: September 10, 2016
Want more of The Mighty?
You can find even more stories on our Home page. There, you’ll also find thoughts and questions by our community.
Take Me Home