How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

by Dale Carnegie

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon—instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world—and loses his health?

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor…. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

“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.”

“The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.”

“Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.”

Angelo Patri has written thirteen books and thousands of syndicated newspaper articles on the subject of child training, and he says: “Nobody is so miserable as he who longs to be somebody and something other than the person he is in body and mind.”

If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill, Be a scrub in the valley—but be The best little scrub by the side of the rill; Be a bush, if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a bush, be a bit of the grass, And some highway happier make; If you can’t be a muskie, then just be a bass— But the liveliest bass in the lake! We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew, There’s something for all of us here. There’s big work to do and there’s lesser to do And the task we must do is the near. If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail, If you can’t be the sun, be a star; It isn’t by size that you win or you fail— Be the best of whatever you are!

“The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains. Any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence; and it makes the difference between a man of sense and a fool.”

Wherever did we get the idea that secure and pleasant living, the absence of difficulty, and the comfort of ease, ever of themselves made people either good or happy?

If we hear that someone has spoken ill of us, let’s not try to defend ourselves. Every fool does that. Let’s be original—and humble—and brilliant! Let’s confound our critic and win applause for ourselves by saying: “If my critic had known about all my other faults, he would have criticized me much more severely than he did.”