Anticipatory Anxiety Quotes

Everything I ever worried about turned out exactly as it was going to, despite my anxious moments to the contrary.

I have spent most of my life worrying about things that have never happened.

Some of the worst things in my life never even happened.

Clearly, all fear has an element of resistance and a leaning away from the moment. Its dynamic is not unlike that of strong desire except that fear leans backward into the last safe moment while desire leans forward toward the next possibility of satisfaction. Each lacks presence. (29)

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

Worry over what has not occurred is a serious malady.

Do your worrying before you place your bet, not after the wheel stops turning.

Fear is always the result of an unquestioned past imagined as a future.

There is nothing more miserable and foolish than anticipation.

But you can’t put fight into a man’s guts if he hasn’t any fight in him. There are some of us so cowardly that you can’t ever make heroes of us, not even if you frighten us to death. We know too much, maybe. There are some of us who don’t live in the moment, who live a little ahead, or a little behind.

Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

To tremble before anticipated evils is to bemoan what thou hast never lost.

For years I feared the opening of every elevator, half-convinced that from the opened doors would come a bullet, for me, shot by a man in a tan trenchcoat. I have no idea why I feared this, expected it to happen. I even knew how I would react to this bullet coming from the elevator door, what word I would say. That word was: Finally.

The worrying thing is there's so much latent hatred of the guy [Donald Trump] and this guy isn't even president yet.

Before I ever start a job that I'm really excited about, I usually have some sleepless nights or weeks or months. But that anticipation for a person like me... I don't do so well with a lot of time off.

The source of anxiety lies in the future. If you can keep the future out of mind, you can forget your worries.

A thing may be dreaded as long as it has not overtaken you.

Most people talk about fear of the unknown, but if there is anything to fear, it is the known.

You can’t dress rehearse the bad moments.

...can I tell you something...? I don't think you're in love with the past. I think you're scared of the future.

If things are too perfect, people are always so afraid that it's going to change, so they ruin it themselves.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

It's so hard when contemplated in advance, and so easy when you do it.

Even if things are going well, I'm always thinking that I'm about to be hit with the dreaded gut punch and - psych! - I'll find out that it's all falling apart.

He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next