Fear and Anxiety

The moment of greatest peril is the moment of victory.

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice.

Possessions delude the human heart into believing that they provide security and a worry-free existence, but in truth they are the very cause of worry.

It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself.

There are only two forces that unite men—fear and interest.

Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man’s greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety.

Fear and dull disposition, lukewarmness and sloth, are not seldom wont to cloak themselves under the affected name of moderation.

Marriage is a great institution—but I’m not ready for an institution.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal.

Ignorance is not a simple lack of knowledge but an active aversion to knowledge, the refusal to know, issuing from cowardice, pride, or laziness of mind.

Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.

Make your cross your crutch; but when you see another man do it, beware of him.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

TRUE TERROR IS TO WAKE UP ONE MORNING AND DISCOVER THAT YOUR HIGH SCHOOL CLASS IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY.

If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet.

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet.

If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

We cannot put off living until we’re ready. Life is fired at us point blank.

We understand why children are afraid of the darkness, but why are men afraid of the light?