Samuel Johnson Quotes

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.

Fears don't exist in isolation. They tend to rise and fall depending on what people think they can do about them.

I don't think anyone's found a way of eliminating thoughts of danger and loss. It's rather that, when they're unrealistic, you become an acrobat at marshaling evidence against them.

One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.

I wouldn't say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I'd like my fear emotion to be less because it's very distracting and fries my nervous system.

There's two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

Become a worry-slapper. Treat frets like mosquitoes. Do you procrastinate when a bloodsucking bug lights on your skin? 'I'll take care of it in a moment.' Of course you don't! You give the critter the slap it deserves. Be equally decisive with anxiety.

We must not let our passions destroy our dreams.

The problem with emotion was that it was clearly something important, but-at least according to the old philosophy-it was something to overcome.

Reason without passion is sterile, but passion without reason is hysteria.

I have always staged my fears as a way to transcend them.

We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination. Learning to suspend your imagination and live completely in the very second of the present with no before and no after is the greatest gift a soldier can acquire.

A mind that is afraid withers away; it cannot function properly.

I naturally end up looking for things to be grateful for. It doesn't mean I don't sometimes feel angry or fearful but because I'm wired for positive emotions, net, I end up treating others and myself better.

There's a very fine line between anxiety and excitement. If you don't let anxiety stop you, you can nudge it over the line.

It is difficult to say which is the greatest evil--to have too violent passions, or to be wholly devoid of them. Controlled with firmness, guided by discretion, and hallowed by the imagination, the passions are the vivifiers and quickeners of our being. Without passion there can be no energy of character. Indeed, the passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways, and dangerous only in one--through their excess.

Creativity is on the side of health - it isn't the thing that drives us mad; it is the capacity in us that tries to save us from madness.

We deal with our mind from morning till evening, and it can be our best friend or our worst enemy.

Think if you want to stay alive. Fear will kill you if you don't control it.

I’ve learned that fear is simply an illusion based on past experiences that we project into the present and onto the future.

Don't let your emotions overpower your intelligence.

The point is, you see," said Ford, "that there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later.

Your emotional capacity is an empty motor, and your values are the fuel with which your mind fills it. If you choose a mix of contradictions, it will clog your motor, corrode your transmission and wreck you on your first attempt to move with a machine which you, the driver, have corrupted.

Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy.