How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

by Dale Carnegie

“Those who keep the peace of their inner selves in the midst of the tumult of the modern city are immune from nervous diseases.”

“If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.”

As André Maurois put it: “Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage.”

“I find that to keep thinking about our problems beyond a certain point is bound to create confusion and worry. There comes a time when any more investigation and thinking are harmful. There comes a time when we must decide and act and never look back.”

Why does such a simple thing as keeping busy help to drive out anxiety? Because of a law—one of the most fundamental laws ever revealed by psychology. And that law is: that it is utterly impossible for any human mind, no matter how brilliant, to think of more than one thing at any given time.

A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightning blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his forefinger and his thumb. Aren’t we all like that battling giant of the forest? Don’t we manage somehow to survive the rare storms and avalanches and lightning blasts of life, only to let our hearts be eaten out by little beetles of worry—little beetles that could be crushed between a finger and a thumb?

“To be wronged or robbed,” said Confucius, “is nothing unless you continue to remember it.”

There is an old saying that a man is a fool who can’t be angry, but a man is wise who won’t be angry. That was the policy of William

Dr Samuel Johnson said: “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation. You do not find it among gross people.”

It is natural for people to forget to be grateful; so, if we go around expecting gratitude, we are headed straight for a lot of heartaches.

‘I had the blues because I had no shoes, Until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.’

Instead of waiting for our enemies to criticise us or our work, let’s beat them to it. Let’s be our own most severe critic. Let’s find and remedy all our weaknesses before our enemies get a chance to say a word. That is what Charles Darwin did.