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
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
Being anxious, or in a painful rush of any kind, kills the possibility of meeting anyone with compassion.
—Guy Finley
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
When you realize that every stressful moment you experience is a gift that points you to your own freedom, life becomes very kind.
—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
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
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
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
—Chinese Proverb
To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace.
—Milan Kundera (b.1929) Czech Novelist
If a warrior is to succeed at anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Clarity moves much more efficiently than violence or stress.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
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
I have discovered that in every language and every country I have visited, there are no new stories. They’re all recycled. The same stressful thoughts arise in each mind one way or another, sooner or later.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
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
In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
That’s the purpose of stress. It’s a friend. It’s an alarm clock, built in to let you know that it’s time to do The Work.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
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
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
There are an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Give your stress wings and let it fly away.
—Terri Guillemets
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
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
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
In times of stress, be bold and valiant.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
A careless word may kindle strife.A cruel word may wreck a life.A timely word may level stress.A loving word may heal and bless.
—Indian Proverb
No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
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
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 time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tone the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.
—Arnold Schwarzenegger (b.1947) Austrian-American Athlete, Actor, Politician
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
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.
—Jennifer Yane
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
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
Loafing needs no explanation and is its own excuse.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
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
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
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
If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
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
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
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.
—Spanish Proverb
For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.
—Lily Tomlin (b.1939) American Comedy Actress
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
In times of stress and strain, people will vote.
—Unknown
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
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
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