Inspirational and Insightful Quotations #21 --- Worry

If we live in the past, we are the past. If worry over mistakes or troubles possesses us, then we become a real manufacturing plant for the production of more worry and trouble in the world.

---George Matthew Adams, The Evening News, San Jose, Calif., Sept. 28, 1921.

What a dreadful thing worry is! Lots of people instead of trying to drown their troubles, they are giving them swimming lessons. Don’t put a life preserver on your troubles; tie lead to their feet.

---Billy Sunday, Spartanburg Herald, Spartanburg, S.C., Feb. 12, 1922.

To face the future with concern to see what might befall him, and to see what might be done with the open possibilities is man's pathway to progress. We need to have an intelligent concern for the future that is opposite of indifference, inertia and weak resignation. But to worry by staying in a state of constant anxiety about things over which we have no control will cause us to have many needlessly miserable hours and days.

—Clifford Harbour, McNairy County Independent, Selmer, Tenn., June 24, 1960.

The habit of worry, like every other habit, becomes easier with indulgence. Worry is the worst enemy of success and the best ally to nervousness. Let me impress upon you especially two facts--90 percent of the things we worry about don't even happen, and, never try to solve a problem lying down in the dark. It only gets more involved.

—Benjamin Kaplan, DeRidder Enterprise, DeRidder, La., Feb. 25, 1949.

Responsibilities, labor and suffering go to make the strong, good man or woman. But worries never made one better. Meeting responsibilities bravely, laboring earnestly and faithfully, bearing griefs nobly, is what makes character, but worrying and grouching about these things destroys character. The man or woman who can smile and speak cheerfully despite the weight of sorrow is the true soul.

---Lew B. Brown, Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Fla., Sept. 18, 1912.

Worry is more wearying than work. We carry burdens that we ought to thrown down. Some men go over the petty triumphs or failures, when they might better be learning something new. How I wish we could be callous to the stings of insignificance annoyances! When you are shooting bear, you can't stop to brush away mosquitoes.

‑‑‑Warner B. Riggs, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, May 26, 1896.

Worry begins with “wo” which is pronounced “woe.”

---Jack Williams, Sr., Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Dec. 7, 1939.

Worry never pays, because work is the paymaster.

---Ernest C. Wareing, Western Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 5, 1926.

Fortitude is the quality which keeps you from worrying over other people’s troubles.

---C.H. Browne, Madison County Monitor, Twin Bridges, Mont., Jan. 27, 1922.

Do not give way to fretfulness. It takes the fragrance out of life and leaves only weeds where a cheerful disposition would cause flowers to bloom.

---Omer L. Downey, Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Fla., Jan. 24, 1912.

All our life we have been hearing that the world is just on the verge of going to pieces and every morning we get up and look out the window–and there it is!

—Howard C. “Buck” Herzog, Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., July 17, 1952.

Worry is like war. You either take the defensive and let other people worry, or you go on the offensive and worry other people.

‑‑‑Allen Duckworth, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, Jan. 3, 1950.

Anxiety and worry kill in us one of our greatest sources of happiness‑‑namely, the power of observation. The worrier is like a person who will look at the speck on the window, instead of at the view beyond.

‑‑‑Louise Collier Wilcox, Delineator, New York, N.Y., March 1915.

The ability to keep from worrying is, of course, a triumph of mind over it-doesn't-matter.

---Jack Haney, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, La., Aug. 12, 1925.

To carry worry to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back.

---Johnny Martin, Houston Post, Houston, Texas, April 1, 1968.

Worry is not work, and work is not worry. Worry begins where and when work ends.

---Vincent P. McCorry, America, Norwalk, Conn., Sept. 15, 1962.

Don’t waste today’s strength fighting tomorrow’s battles.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Duluth Evening Herald, Duluth, Minn., March 18, 1899.

The worst cares to take care of are those we borrow or steal.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Duluth Evening Herald, Duluth, Minn., Jan. 25, 1902.

You may try to do many a day’s worry, but you can only do one day’s work at a time.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Duluth Evening Herald, Duluth, Minn., Sept. 20, 1902.

The man who is always worrying that something is the matter with him is quite right in his suspicion. He isn’t using his energy properly.

---Lucius W. Nieman, Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee, Wis., Dec. 3, 1911.

Misdirected worry is worse than a cancer. Misdirected anxiety is wasted energy.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Nov. 10, 1920.

Tomorrow is the thing we worry about the most. That’s a foolish habit. We ought to get down to business and see that we make the most of today.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Nov. 10, 1920.

Worrying about a perplexing situation isn’t studying about it. Worry kills—it doesn’t solve. Careful study, interspersed with recreation or change of subject, will adjust the difficulty. The man who is serious, but doesn’t worry, is halfway to success.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Oct. 10, 1924.

The man who worries about little things is a little man.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Feb. 17, 1922.

When you worry about your past you are really worrying about your future.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Feb. 13, 1923.

Don’t worry for fear there will be nothing to worry about. In about five minutes there will be something new to worry about.

---Carl J.G. Brown, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 23, 1941.

To worry is to confess one's self weaker than one's environment.

‑‑‑W.A. MacKenzie, Florida Times‑Union, Jacksonville, Fla., March 27, 1923.

Worry is the substitute which some use to fill the vacancy in their backbone from which courage to face and surmount difficulties has subtly oozed.

‑‑‑W.A. MacKenzie, Florida Times‑Union, Jacksonville, Fla., Aug. 4, 1923.

Never spend time worrying over what is past; the future is the big problem.

---Edmund J. Kiefer, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., Feb. 25, 1931.

Rather than wastefully expending our concern on annoying trifles, we need to conserve it to cope with the major problems of life.

---Edmund J. Kiefer, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., July 20, 1958.

Worry makes more blended shoulders and aching brows than honest labor.

---Henry Edward Warner, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., Nov. 27, 1915.

Hard work owes nothing to foolish worry.

---Henry Edward Warner, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., Oct. 8, 1921.

If in hours which ought to be hours of rest we allow the mind to brood over grievances, to dwell on difficulties, to harass itself with cares, and grieve over suffering and sorrow, we shall find leisure even more exhausting than work.

---George F. Butler, The Caledonian Record, St. Johnsbury, Vt., Dec. 28, 1920.

It is futile to expect a fretful, impatient and over-anxious frame of mind, continuing through the day and every day, will be suddenly replaced at night by the placid and comfortable mental state which shall insure a restful sleep.

---George F. Butler, The Caledonian Record, St. Johnsbury, Vt., Jan. 3, 1921.

Don’t be foolish. Eat less and play more. Indulge in less fret and fume and more fruit and fun.

---George F. Butler, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill, Jan. 22, 1905.

Refuse to worry, and you have accomplished one of the greatest things in the world.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma Farmer, Guthrie, Okla., June 9, 1909.

Life is short at best, so don’t waste any of it worrying over the affairs of other people.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Okla., March 19, 1908.

When a person gets into the habit of worrying, it’s surprising how many things he can find to worry about.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Okla., Feb. 26, 1911.

The “Worrying Society” has the largest membership of all societies. Its members come from all classes. Its ranks are always full—and increasing. It grows in all countries, ages and among all people. It is not confined to the common people. But rulers, leaders, rich and poor alike have worries. Men and women everywhere are in need of peace of mind and a more even temper of mind. They need contentment. The age is too swift. People run too fast. They worry about trifles and are too anxious to get rich, and make a showing socially, politically or in business. These unhappy conditions are showing themselves in the human face. There is the type of face that reveals a worried, restless, unhappy condition. Men and women are so absorbed that it tells in their countenances. They should quit worrying. The old world will go along about like it has. The “Worrying Society” is the worst you can belong to.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Okla., Nov. 19, 1908.

One reason why you should join the Don’t Worry Club? Did the worrying you did last year ever improve matters?

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 2, 1900.

When spoiling today’s joy with worry for tomorrow, who knows he will be here when tomorrow comes? A Don’t Worry Club is a good thing to belong to. It requires no invitation to join; there are no club meetings, and no club foolishness. Everyone who refuses to worry is a Don’t Worry Club to himself. The plan is a good step and consider if any of the worrying you have done ever helped matters any, and then make up your mind to worry less in the future.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 4, 1900.

There are two things in life a man should never allow to worry him—those he can prevent and those he cannot prevent.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 18, 1889.

Some people like to worry so well that they wouldn’t enjoy being happy unless they could worry for fear they wouldn’t always be.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 16, 1909.

You can’t work and worry at the same time to a good advantage.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Nov. 26, 1909.

A man who worries throws rocks at his troubles, and hits himself.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Nov. 26, 1909.

The more you worry about worry, the more worry you get.

---Eugene Alexander “Gene” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Jan. 26, 1923.

As a rule, nothing but a lot of worry comes to those who wait.

---Eugene Alexander “Gene” Howe, Atchison Daily Globe, Atchison, Kan., Feb. 1, 1918.

A great waste of mental and moral vitality is indulging in demoralizing, vicious and deteriorating thoughts. Every bit of useless worry—and worry is useless—every bit of anxiety, every particle of fretting and stewing, every bit of despondency, indulgence in melancholy or foreboding, every bit of fear—fear of failure, of losses, of sickness, of disease, of death, of unjust criticism or ridicule, or of the unfavorable opinions of others—all these things are vitality-sappers, worse than useless, for they unfit us for constructive, creative work by squandering that which makes such work possible. One is wasting life force every time he talks of failure, of hard luck, of troubles and trials, of past errors and mistakes. If one would succeed, let him turn his back on the past, burning all the bridges behind him; turn his back to shadows and face the light.

---Orison Swett Marden, Success Magazine, New York, N.Y., April 1903.

Enough vital energy has been wasted in useless worry to run all the affairs of the world.

---Orison Swett Marden, Success Magazine, New York, N.Y., November 1905.

A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.

---Orison Swett Marden, Success Magazine, New York, N.Y., November 1905.

If you think your memory's so good, just what was it you were worrying about a year ago today?

‑‑‑Theodore L. Cannon, Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 6, 1958.

Nobody ever killed a problem by worrying it to death.

—Bill Copeland, Sarasota Journal, Sarasota, Fla., July 2, 1965.

The most exorbitant interest rate is charged to borrow trouble.

—Bill Copeland, Sarasota Journal, Sarasota, Fla., April 21, 1980.

Of all the ways to waste time, worrying it to death is the worst.

—Bill Copeland, Sarasota Journal, Sarasota, Fla., April 4, 1980.

We have noticed that an object looks so much larger when seen through a fog. So it always is. Brooding over anything raises that very thing to hideous and unnatural proportions. The best preventive is something that will occupy the mind. Live above the fog bell—that’s it.

---J. Marvin Nichols, Amsterdam Evening Recorder, Amsterdam, N.Y., Sept. 2, 1931.

Worry is the mental message that you’ve got poison in your veins.

---J. Marvin Nichols, The Daily Ardmoreite, Ardmore, Okla., Sept. 8, 1907.

The unhappiness of life lies in the fret of it; not in its work, but in its worry.

---J. Marvin Nichols, Gainesville Daily Sun, Gainesville, Fla., July 22, 1907.

Help other people in their troubles and you won’t have time to worry about yourself.

---Carl A. Wilhelm, The Telegraph-Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, Sept. 22, 1929.

Very few worries live long unless they are given careful nursing.

---Roy L. Smith, Christian Advocate, Chicago, Ill., March 13, 1941.

Worry is the great multiplier of trouble.

---Roy L. Smith, Christian Advocate, Chicago, Ill., Feb. 17, 1944.

People who are always worrying seldom do the most thinking.

---Roy L. Smith, Tampa Morning Tribune, Tampa, Fla., June 19, 1936.

If it were as easy to laugh at our own worries as it is to laugh at others’ worries we would all be carefree.

---Roy L. Smith, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., April 12, 1930.

The hardest work most of us do is the worrying we do before we start working.

---Roy L. Smith, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., Nov. 23, 1930.

The continual habit of worry makes life a madhouse of fear.

---Roy L. Smith, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., June 6, 1931.

The best cure for worry is to find someone who needs your help.

‑‑‑Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Jan. 23, 1910.

Work soon wears out worry.

---Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., July 23, 1905.

Worry is a confession of weakness.

‑‑‑Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., June 23, 1907.

There is nothing imaginary about the weakness that results from worry over imaginary ills.

‑‑‑Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Jan. 12, 1908.

Some get so anxious over impending storms that they shut out all present sunlight.

---Henry F. Cope, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash., Sept. 18, 1910.

Nothing worries worry worse than work.

---Henry F. Cope, Lincoln County Leader, Toledo, Ore. Feb. 2, 1906.

Worry and failure are boon companions.

---John F. Easley, Daily Ardmoreite, Ardmore, Okla., Dec. 21, 1914.

There are two things a man should never worry about: What he can help and what he cannot help.

---John F. Easley, Daily Ardmoreite, Ardmore, Okla., Sept. 22, 1915.

Worry is the accelerator that we step on to hurry up death.

‑‑‑Phil H. Armstrong, Florida Times‑Union, Jacksonville, Fla., Jan. 8, 1923.

Man is like a bridge. He was designed to carry the load of the moment, not the combined weight of the year at once.

---Clarin D. Ashby, Uintah Basin Standard, Roosevelt, Utah, Dec. 31, 1970.

Worry casts a big shadow behind a small thing.

‑‑‑Clarin D. Ashby, Uintah Basin Standard, Roosevelt, Utah, June 10, 1971.

Worry is squinting the eyes and then complaining that life’s landscape is askew.

---John Wesley Holland, Brookfield Courier, Brookfield, N.Y., Feb. 20, 1929.

A mind that is not driven to work will either frivol, or worry.

---John Wesley Holland, Lima Recorder, Lima, N.Y., Oct. 9, 1936.

Why specialize in worrying? When you succeed at it you fail.

---John Wesley Holland, Livonia Gazette, Livonia, N.Y., Oct. 20, 1938.

One never learns how to do anything by worrying over it.

---William Jennings Bryan, The Daily Standard Union, Brooklyn, N.Y., Oct. 24, 1912.

Many men and women bear their burdens three times—before, in the present and after. Once is a great deal.

---M. Woolsey Stryker, Houston Daily Post, Houston, Texas, Aug. 30, 1896.

Worry is a bleacher who is forever making your hair white.

---Alexander Edwin Sweet, Texas Siftings, New York, N.Y., Sept. 13, 1890.

A lot of us are worrying ourselves sick about our future, when it’s our past that’s holding us down.

---Liston Dickson Elkins, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Nov. 8, 1934.

To worry about past failures makes as much sense as beating a dead horse, and to worry about future events makes us ill equipped to meet the ordeal when and if it does arrive. It all goes back to my contention that we can think of but one thing at a time, so if you think of something that worries you, stop, and try thinking of something that's not burdensome.

‑‑‑B. Davis Evans, Spanish Fork Press, Spanish Fork, Utah, Sept. 17, 1975.

Worry is misery ahead of schedule.

—H. Asa Fowler, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 29, 1942.

"Don't Worry" is a good motto and it's even better if you add one more word‑‑"Others."

‑‑‑Les Goates, Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Dec. 8, 1949.

When two people with lots of worries and troubles get in the same boat, they're ordinarily too busy talking to do much paddling toward the shore.

‑‑‑Roberta Lyndon, The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Ga., March 17, 1940.

Troubles are prolific in an atmosphere of worry.

-‑‑Duncan M. Smith, Morgantown Daily Post, Morgantown, W.Va., March 29, 1906.

It is a silly and useless thing, this fretting. In the account of gain or loss, it is dead loss. The fretter is a killjoy in his home and everywhere else, but most of all to himself. No one feels like doing a favor for one who is perpetually fussing and fuming. The fretful one is always contrary minded and what is more he provokes contrariness in others. It is difficult, if not impossible, to love or admire a fretting person. He may if he frets enough, gain his point, but he gets himself cordially disliked and that is too high a price to pay. If things cannot be helped, why then they cannot be and fretting doesn’t get one anywhere. It only makes a bad matter worse. If you have to face the inevitable, the only thing to do is to put the best face on the matter possible. Fretting distorts the vision and undermines the will power. It will in no long time lead to physical disability and finally to senile decay. A strong mind resides in a strong body. The fretful member of a family is a jarring, discordant element. No tender loving associations can grow out of a home life where fretfulness pervades the atmosphere. Such a home tends to disintegrate to the hurt of all its members. There are many such tragedies. Fretting is an insidious enemy. It grows on one unawares and first thing he knows he is the victim of a pernicious habit. Beware of the poison of fretfulness.

---Lucius W. Nieman, Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee, Wis., Dec. 15, 1918.

Usually we can successfully deal with the obstacles that we encounter; but it is those obstructions in the distant, in the future which we imagine to be insurmountable that cause us the most of our worry, reduce our capacity and give us nervous breakdowns. In the majority of cases the anticipated difficulties never appear. And there is another thing about obstacles. When we actually encounter the worst difficulty that we can imagine, we usually find that it is not so bad as we had imagined, that it has its compensations, and that there are ways around it, under, over, or through it.

---Wickes Wamboldt, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., May 30, 1933.

One of the most unprofitable pursuits in this world is worry, and yet what a large number of people engage in it. It seems to possess some sort of fascination which it exercises over its victims and causes them to spend hours in doing nothing but making themselves miserable. There are two kinds of worry—the kind that relates to the past and the kind that relates to the future. Neither one does any good whatever. A person who is always looking back and worrying over past failures, real or fancied, never makes any progress in life. His mind dwells constantly on the mistakes he has made, and, instead of looking forward and trying to succeed better the next time, he looks backward and regrets what he has done. The result is that he becomes morbid and unhappy. Then there is the person who is always in doubt and anxiety in regard to the future. He can never take things calmly, but expects that something will go wrong with everything he does. Such a person cannot be happy and enjoy life, and yet it usually happens that these dreadful evils he feared never take place. Nearly all of his worrying is spent in vain over things that never could come about, Thus he wastes time and makes himself wretched, when there was really no need at all for him to do so. Everybody knows how useless worry is, and yet so many people so it. It is a habit which can be got rid of only by a great deal of will power and determination. Patience and perseverance will be necessary, too. For one who has worried for many years cannot expect to turn over a new leap and keep it turned in a day or a week. The improvement will be gradual, and there will be discouragement, but the end can be achieved, and the depressing habit effectually overcome. Let us all, therefore, who spend any time in worrying, take a sensible view of things, and turn our minds to something more pleasant, for: “What’s the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile.”

---McGill Daily, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Dec. 5, 1918.

Worry is like chewing gum. It gives you something to do, keeping your chin wagging, but getting you nowhere.

‑‑‑Idaho County Free Press, Grangeville, Idaho, Oct. 13, 1949.

Worry is nothing but the teasing of tired nerves.

‑‑‑Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Ill., May 14, 1920.

The more you worry the more you will have to worry about.

‑‑‑Intermountain Catholic, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 19, 1908.

If you worry about what other people think of you, you show more confidence in their opinion than in your own.

‑‑‑Journal of Living, New York, N.Y., February 1950.

In being the architect of your own fortune don't indulge in too much fret-work.

---New York Times, New York, N.Y., June 18, 1911.

The worries of today are the jokes of tomorrow. The worries of yesterday are the jokes of today.

‑‑‑Outlook, New York, N.Y., Jan. 17, 1917.

You can worry yourself into more trouble than you can work yourself out of.

‑‑‑The Prairie, Canyon, Texas, July 27, 1937.

Many a man has broken under the strain of trying to do today’s work and tomorrow’s worrying.

---Prescott Evening Courier, Prescott, Ariz., Aug. 2, 1929.

Tomorrow's worries are largely overcome by performing well today's duties.

‑‑‑Provo Post, Provo, Utah, July 22, 1921.

Worry rhymes with hurry in fact as well as sound.

‑‑‑Puck, New York, N.Y., July 16, 1890.

All of us have narrow escapes, if we count the things we worry about that never happen.

---Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio, Sept. 7, 1922.

Naturally the man who frets about what's ahead doesn't go on to better things.

---Utah Farmer, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 25, 1935.

Worrying about the future is an out and out case of being determined to be miserable.

‑‑‑Utah Farmer, Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 10, 1936.

The most sensible reason for not worrying is the fact that by worry you impair your capacity for crossing bridges when you actually come to them. Worry impairs the mind and the emotions. If there were a dozen good causes for worry it would be unwise to indulge in it for the reason that there can be no good excuse for impairing our capacity to meet and solve problems. If you want to keep yourself able and competent to deal with questions that await you, save the mind and emotions by not wearing them out before you get to the problem. And by the time you gets to the bridge, nine chances out of ten the crossing will be very much easier than you expected.

—Grove Patterson, Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., March 22, 1930.

The worst enemy of efficiency, as well as the best ally of nervousness, is worry. Worry is a complete circle of inefficient thought whirling about a pivot of fear. To avoid it, consider first whether the problem in hand is actually your business. If it is not, turn to something that is. If it is your business, decide next whether it is your business now. If it is, decide what is the wisest and most efficient thing to do about it. If you know, get busy and do it; if you do not know, if you lack knowledge, seek the knowledge you need and seek it now. Do these things, and in nine cases out of ten, anxiety will not degenerate into worry. If the actual probabilities are so very bad that intense anxiety is unavoidable, nevertheless apply this mechanical rule, and then assert your faith and your courage. Realize that success, for you as for others, is always approximation of the ideal; then rest your case on the determination that no matter how hard things may turn out to be, you will make the best of them, and more than that no man can do. In short, common sense can put worry out of the running in most cases, but always faith is essential to victory.

—Austen Fox Riggs, Journal of Living, New York, N.Y., July 1950.

When worry moves in to live with you, sanity, happiness and contentment leave without giving notice. It has never purchased a meal or paid a debt, and never will. On the contrary, worry will prevent payment of debts and take the taste out of an otherwise good meal. It signboards for us horrors and dangers that lurk further down the roadway that we will never travel. It has made a pathway to the insane asylum and to the poor house. Walk with worry and you walk with death. The millstones of the human mind go round and round; if they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be ground. What is nervous prostration but the wearing out of the millstones with no grist between? Fill your mind with good things. Be good company for yourself. Don't worry.

—Melvin V. Strother, The New Era, Eunice, La., Feb. 26, 1937.

Perhaps not one of us can avoid a certain amount of worry. But if we are intelligent we can study our worries, analyze them, dispose of them. Many of us make the mistake of trying to escape worries, trying to run away from them. Turning your back does no good. You cannot escape that way. But you can face the thing openly, calmly, with poise. The thing that can be helped you can help, if you are not deficient in energy and courage. The things that have happened–past and gone–you can check off. If you do not care to change your life in such a way as to escape worry, then accept worry, get used to it. Indeed there is a certain triumph to life if you do more than succeed in making others miserable with your cares.

—Grove H. Patterson, Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., May 2, 1930.

Fatigue is the great underlying cause of most of the worry in the world--fatigue of mind, or of body, or both; not the passing tiredness from which we quickly recover because we take time to rest, but the fatigue which we go on rolling up, as a snowball, until it becomes a great dead weight on all the functions of our body and brain. If you are only half rested, you can do only one-fourth what you could do if you were entirely rested. Worry is almost always associated with emotion of some sort. Emotion is potential energy. It is steam which must find an outlet. If it is put to work, well and good. If not, it will blow up something, somehow, somewhere. Even though there isn't a real explosion this misdirected energy of emotion will produce a state of mental unrest which often develops into chronic worry.

—Allison Gray, American Magazine, Springfield, Ohio, October 1918.

Yesterday's neglect causes two-thirds of today's worries.

—Burris A. Jenkins, Kansas City Post, Kansas City, Mo., May 2, 1919.

"Plan your work and work your plan" has been paying off in huge dividends from time we don't know when. Man must learn to think out his problems and not worry about them. The manner in which he thinks them out and keeps his thinking channeled and in correct procedures becomes a masterpiece of time and effort.

—Alvin R. Dyer, Central States Mission Bulletin, Independence, Mo., July 24, 1956.

Worry is torture self-inflicted.

—Grant L. Bell, American Magazine, Springfield, Ohio, July 1927.

Worry is the root of all the cowardly passions.

—Horace Fletcher, The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, La., Nov. 18, 1895.

Worry is half of weariness.

—Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Aug. 23, 1908.

The biggest spendthrift of all is the guy who spends all his time worrying.

—Bill Copeland, Sarasota Journal, Sarasota, Fla., March 2, 1966.

The fellow who is always worrying about the past hasn't much time left to plan for the future.

—Edwin A. Naugle, St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, Fla., Dec. 17, 1921.

Worry incapacitates a man from attending to the things about which he is worrying.

—Samuel C. Schmucker, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, March 11, 1928.

Analyze your worries. Go back to the source, uncover it, examine it, and see if it is really worth worrying about. Don't worry about what is over with, and can't be helped. Talk over your worry with some sympathetic friend. Worry needs a good airing now and then. Even keeping a diary and writing it down helps. It is not work that kills, but work combined with worry. ... By learning to conquer worry I have helped myself, have given myself more strength, more time, and more enthusiasm for the thing I wished to do. When you are worrying about some trivial thing, remember that a factor in it is exaggerated self-consciousness.

—Homer Croy, American Magazine, Springfield, Ohio, September 1926.

Worry is discounting future troubles so that you may have present misery.

—W.E. Ferrell, Clarendon News, Clarendon, Texas, Sept. 12, 1935.

Many people cut their lives short worrying over matters which never repay the time wasted on them.

—Roy E. Gibson, Nephi Times-News, Nephi, Utah, May 13, 1954.

There are only two things in the world to worry over: The things you can control and the things you can't control. Fix the first, forget the second.

—William C. Hunter, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Jan. 23, 1910.

The normal condition of man is that of happiness. Worry is the result of an artificial condition.

—William C. Hunter, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., April 10, 1910.

It takes the same amount of effort to worry as it does to think.

—Wesley S. Izzard, Amarillo Daily News, Amarillo, Texas, Feb. 28, 1950.

Worry is the station where can't gets on and will gets off.

—W.A. MacKenzie, Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla., Oct. 10, 1922.

Worrying over the past only puts brakes on the future.

—Bert Moses, Lake Charles American Press, Lake Charles, La., Aug. 30, 1939.

The height of ignorance is worrying all night about having to get up in the morning.

—Bill Spottswood, Richardson Echo, Richardson, Texas, July 24, 1925.

Probably the greatest worry people can have is to worry over being unable to quit worrying.

—Jack Warwick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pa., April 10, 1939.