Book – How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (Quotes)
Author – Dale Carnegie
Genre – Self-help Book
Published in – 1948
One of the best books on beating worry habits and living a peaceful life is How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. As much as the book’s principles and tactics are elementary, the text is also full of inspiring, thought-provoking quotes, lines, and sentences that change perspective and give a new way of looking at and dealing with our situation.
Here are 39 quotes from the book.
1. “About ninety percent of our lives are right, and about ten percent are wrong. If we want to be happy, we must concentrate on the ninety percent right and ignore the ten percent wrong. If we want to be worried and bitter and have stomach ulcers, we must concentrate on the ten percent that is wrong and ignore the glorious ninety percent.”
2. “Whether in war or peace, the chief difference between good and bad thinking is this: good thinking deals with causes and effects and leads to logical, constructive planning; bad thinking frequently leads to tension and nervous breakdowns.”
3. “Let’s be content to live the only time we can live: from now until bedtime. “Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. “Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely till the sun goes down. And this is all that life means.”
4. “Those who keep the peace of their inner selves amid the tumult of the modern city are immune from nervous diseases. “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.”
5. “Obviously, circumstances alone do not make us happy or unhappy. It is the way we react to circumstances that determine our feelings. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within you. That is where the kingdom of hell is, too.”
6. “The most relaxing recreating forces are a healthy religion, sleep, music, and laughter. Have faith in Learning to sleep well- Love good music, the funny side of life- And health and Happiness will be yours.”
7. “The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind, yet the mind and body are one and should not be treated separately” – Plato
8. “One of the worst features of trying is that it destroys our concentration ability. We worry, our minds jump here and there and everywhere, and we lose all power of decision.”
9. “The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The essential thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence; it makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool” – William Bolitho
10. “Happiness is not mostly pleasure; it is mostly victory. Yes, the victory that comes from a sense of achievement, of triumph, of turning our lemons into lemonades” -Harry Emerson Fosdick
11. “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew): Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who” – Rudyard Kipling
12. “If a man devotes his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.”
13. “Action seems to follow feeling, but action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not” – William James
14. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference” -Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr
15. “Concern means realizing the problems and calmly taking steps to meet them. Worrying means going around in maddening, futile circles.”
16. “Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember, “Life is too short to be little.”
17. “For every ailment under the sun, there is a remedy, or there is none; If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never mind it.”
18. “There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of humanity achieve the second” – Logan Pearsall Smith
19. “A man is not hurt so much by what happens as by his opinion of what happens.” And our opinion of what happens is entirely up to us” – Montaigne
20. “There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will” – Epictetus
21. “Nobody is so miserable as he, who longs to be somebody and something other than the person he is in body and mind” – Angelo Patri
22. “Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes daily. Wisdom consists in not exceeding that limit” – Elbert Hubbard
23. “Worry is most apt to ride you ragged not when you are in action, but when the day’s work is done” – James L. Mursell
24. “Everything that agrees with our desires seems true. Everything that does not put us into a rage” – Andre Maurois
25. “Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequence of any misfortune” – William James
26. “Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Ask yourself: How do I KNOW this thing I am worrying about will come to pass?”
27. “The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not” – George Bernard Shaw
28. “If you have what seems to you insufficient, then you will be miserable even if you possess the world” – Seneca
29. “A man alone can easily be defeated, but a man alive with the power of God within him is invincible.”
30. “The mind is its place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell and a hell of Heaven.”
31. “To be wronged or robbed is nothing unless you continue to remember it” – Confucius
32. “To know all is to understand all, and this leaves no room for judgment and condemnation” – Clarence Darrow
33. “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation. You do not find it among gross people” – Dr. Samuel Johnson
34. “Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour.”
35. “Fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration, and resentment.”
36. “Businessmen who do not know how to fight worry die young” – Dr. Alexis Carrel
37 “Man is not made to understand life, but to live it” – George Santayana
38. “Everything changes except the law of change.”
39. “Every day is a new life to a wise man.”
I hope these quotes and lines inspired you to act and eliminate worries. Please share this post with everyone you feel will benefit.
Do share your favorite quote from the above or any other book you read that resonates with you. I would love to hear from you.
I have also written a review of this book. You may check out How to Stop Worrying and Start Living Review.
I wish you a worry-free life.
Muzammil
I really like and appreciate your blog article.Thanks Again. Awesome.