Mohsin Hamid Quotes

It is a queer thing, but imaginary troubles are harder to bear than actual ones.

Almost everyone seems to worry about something, and yet, we rarely talk about worry as a problem. Maybe that is because worry is so integrated into the way we have come to live and be in the world that we don't even notice it.

I think anxiety is the nature of most environments today, and people feel inadequate when they are not able to cope with it.

What really interests me, on a deeper level, is how our information is coming to us in some kind of messed up way that is making us idiotic. I don't think we've become more idiotic than we always were, but I think the information transfer is funky. The shorthand of it is that social media is making us mentally insane.

Paranoia has a sharper taste if the danger is real.

The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th century.

The real effect of the WTC calamity has been depressed spirits, anxiety, and uncertainty among publishers, and of course those emotions are not restricted to publishers.

Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

I wanted to put a human face on anxiety disorders. I thought people who suffer from anxiety might recognize themselves and gain some comfort from my story and for those who don't suffer from anxiety disorders gain some understanding.

It's sad, actually, because my anxiety keeps me from enjoying things as much as I should at this age.

I have an advanced degree in procrastination and another one in paranoia.

If danger arises in the present moment, there may be an emotion. There may even be pain. But that's a challenge, not a problem. For a problem to exist, you need time and repetitive mind activity.

To grapple with and understand anxiety is, in some sense, to grapple with and understand the human condition.

The way that people feel changes everything. Feelings are forces. They cause us to time travel. And to leave ourselves, to leave our bodies. I would be that kind of psychologist who says, 'You're absolutely right - there are monsters under the bed.'

There's so much going on in the world. There's so much information being thrown at us - so many things are being sold to us, and we're being told how we should appear and how to be more successful, blah, blah, blah. How does that manifest itself? In the pressures, the stress, this need to escape.

The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.

If you don't think your anxiety, depression, sadness and stress impact your physical health, think again. All of these emotions trigger chemical reactions in your body, which can lead to inflammation and a weakened immune system. Learn how to cope, sweet friend. There will always be dark days.

Time is what the depressed and panicked lack.

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.

The fact is that trauma and risk taking hadn't become scarier over the years; it had become more normal.

New diseases like SARS and bird flu cause anxiety in the community. People get worried, some to the extent that it even affects their health. You feel very sad, and yet you must carry on and maintain your cool in very trying and difficult moments. You have to tough it out.

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.

People get so in the habit of worry that if you save them from drowning and put them on a bank to dry in the sun with hot chocolate and muffins they wonder whether they are catching cold.