I have never experienced a stressful feeling that wasn’t caused by attaching to an untrue thought. Behind every uncomfortable feeling, there’s a thought that isn’t true for us.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The capacity of man himself is only revealed when, under stress and responsibility, he breaks through his educational shell, and he may then be a splendid surprise to himself no less than to his teachers.
—Harvey Williams Cushing (1869–1939) American Neurosurgeon, Biographer
The man who doesn’t relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
I can find only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours and God’s. Much of our stress comes from mentally living out of our business. When I think, “You need to get a job, I want you to be happy, you should be on time, you need to take better care of yourself,” I am in your business. When I’m worried about earthquakes, floods, war, or when I will die, I am in God’s business. If I am mentally in your business or in God’s business, the effect is separation.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.
—Spanish Proverb
Pain is a relatively objective, physical phenomenon; suffering is our psychological resistance to what happens. Events may create physical pain, but they do not in themselves create suffering. Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is…The only problem in your life is your mind’s resistance to life as it unfolds.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
When a thought appears such as “Do the dishes” and you don’t do them, notice how an internal war breaks out… The stress and weariness you feel are really mental combat fatigue.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
I think it is fair to say that it is under a great deal of stress, and if I am asking for significant changes, it is because the world is going through significant changes.
—Mohamed ElBaradei (b.1942) Egyptian Diplomat
Over the years your bodies become walking autobiographies, telling friends and strangers alike of the minor and major stresses of your lives.
—Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American Author, Editor, Orator
Stress: The confusion created when one’s mind overrides the body’s basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it
—Unknown
There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.
—Sylvia Plath (1932–63) American Poet, Novelist
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
In these days, half our diseases come from the neglect of the body in the over work of the brain. In this railway age, the wear and tear of labor and intellect go on without pause or self-pity. We live longer than our forefathers; but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued only the muscles, we exhaust the finer strength of the nerves.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
In this world without quiet corners, there can be no easy escapes from history, from hullabaloo, from terrible, unquiet fuss.
—Salman Rushdie (b.1947) Indian-born British Novelist
No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Rather than understand the original cause—a thought—we try to change the stressful feelings by looking outside ourselves.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.
—Natalie Goldberg (b.1948) American Buddhist Author
Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.
—Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) American Writer, Futurist
Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty, it is it’s own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The experiences of camp life show that a man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.
—Viktor Frankl (1905–97) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
Give your stress wings and let it fly away.
—Terri Guillemets
We create stress for ourselves because you feel like you have to do it. You have to. I don’t feel that anymore
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.
—Tommy Lasorda (1927–2021) American Baseball Player, Coach
In times of stress and strain, people will vote.
—Unknown
If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it.
—George Burns (1896–1996) American Comedian
There is precious little hope to be got out of whatever keeps us industrious, but there is a chance for us whenever we cease work and become stargazers.
—H. M. Tomlinson (1873–1958) English Novelist, Journalist, Short Story Writer
For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.
—Lily Tomlin (b.1939) American Comedy Actress
The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author