the greater part of our anxieties stems from an exaggerated sense of the importance of our own projects and concerns. We are tortured by our ideals and by a punishingly high-minded sense of the gravity of what we are doing.

Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it — just as we have learned to live with storms.

One of the few blessings of living in an age of anxiety is that we are forced to become aware of ourselves.

Anxiety is fear of one's self.

human beings are overshadowed by anxiety because of our divided selves.

Anxiety, the illness of our time, comes primarily from our inability to dwell in the present moment.

By choosing to live above the ordinary level we create extraordinary problems for ourselves.

Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable.

The pattern of unnecessarily creating crises in your life is actually an avoidance technique. It distracts you from actually having to be vulnerable or held accountable for whatever it is you’re afraid of. You’re never upset for the reason you think you are: At the core of your desire to create a problem is simply the fear of being who you are and living the life you want.

Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity

The price we have paid for expecting to be so much more than our ancestors is a perpetual anxiety that we are far from being all we might be.

Anxiety is the handmaiden of contemporary ambition.

Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we are and feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being. We are struck with admiration at some of its transient modifications, but it is itself the great miracle.

We create stress for ourselves because you feel like you have to do it. You have to. I don’t feel that anymore. — OPRAH WINFREY, actress and talk-show host, The Oprah Winfrey Show