Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
—Chinese Proverb
No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Basically, my problem was attributed to stress more than anything. I don’t know what that does and I guess doctors can tell you that there’s chemicals that build up in your system when you go through a lot of stress and constant stress.
—Mike Ditka (b.1939) American Sportsperson
Unbeknownst to most fun-loving bipeds, not all stress is bad. Indeed, the New Rich don’t aim to eliminate all stress. Not in the least.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Give your stress wings and let it fly away.
—Terri Guillemets
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
Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
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
It is easy to be swept away by some overwhelming feeling, so it’s helpful to remember that any stressful feeling is like a compassionate alarm clock that says, “You’re caught in the dream”.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
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
Loafing needs no explanation and is its own excuse.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
Enjoyment, on the other hand, is not always pleasant, and it can be very stressful at times. A mountain climber, for example, may be close to freezing, utterly exhausted, and in danger of falling into a bottomless crevasse, yet he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Sipping a pina colada under a palm tree at the edge of the turquoise ocean is idyllic, but it just doesn’t compare to the exhilaration he feels on the windswept ridge.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.
—Etty Hillesum (1914–43) Dutch Diarist, Holocaust Victim
Stress is the trash of modern life – we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.
—Danzae Pace
Believing that you must do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you’ll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it.
—Steve Pavlina (b.1971) American Motivational Speaker
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
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
There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. Like imprisoned steam, the more it is pressed the more it rises to resist the pressure. The more we are obliged to do the more we are able to accomplish.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
I like to be alone so I can write. But focus can hurt you. I don’t want to be some stress casualty in early middle age.
—James Ellroy (b.1948) American Crime Fiction Writer, Essayist
Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
Stress is the high-level performers PowerBar.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it.
—Unknown
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 (b.1927) American Baseball Player, Coach
The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven’t fallen asleep yet.
—Unknown
When you suffer an attack of nerves you’re being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?
—Russell Hoban (1925–2011) American Novelist, Children’s Writer
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Clarity moves much more efficiently than violence or stress.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, 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
Your nature is truth, and when you oppose it, you don’t feel like yourself. Stress never feels as natural as peace does.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
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
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
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time
—John Lubbock (1834–1913) English Politician, Biologist
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
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
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
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 (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
Throw out an alarming alarm clock. If the ring is loud and strident, you’re waking up to instant stress. You shouldn’t be bullied out of bed, just reminded that it’s time to start your day.
—Sharon Anderson-Gold (1947–2011) American Philosopher, Academic
If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.
—Richard Carlson (1912–77) American Actor, TV Personality, Film Director, Screenwriter
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
Looking to any angry, anxious, or otherwise stressed emotional state to help you sort out the pain you’re in is like trying to organize your monthly bills by throwing them into a blender.
—Guy Finley
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.
—Spanish Proverb
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
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
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
A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
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