Overthinking Quotes
Get out of your head
Overthinking is a daily struggle millions deal with. It’s easy to say ‘don’t think about it too much’ yet in reality it is a lot harder to put that action to life. Here are 3 quotes about overthinking that help me:
- “You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” — Dan Millman
- “Stop worrying about what can go wrong, and get excited about what can go right.” — Unknown
- “While you were overthinking, you missed everything worth feeling.” — Nitya Prakash
Here is Overthinking quotes: 91 + Tips to Overcome it Fast!
Welcome to our article that will help you get out of your head and stop overthinking so much. These are your top overthinking quotes with tips to put into action right away.
Mental Growth And overthinking
You are not alone if you find yourself constantly overthinking everything in your life. Overthinking will hold you back from doing possibly helpful new actions and routines in your day to better your mental health & Mental Growth.
It feels much safer to sit inside your comfort bubble and not venture into new realms within your day. Your ability to overthink will aid you in this detrimental area by processing each new thought or possible path and finding ways to sabotage you from taking the first step to do them.
How to Stop overthinking
The best way to stop overthinking is to act right away and not let your brain have time to kick into your routine of talking yourself out of something.
Taking these words out of your vocabulary will help you stop overthinking:
- “I’ll try this later”
- “What might go wrong if I do this?”
- “Let me think about this a bit more”
- “When does this need to be done by?”
- “How much time do I have to do this?”
Quotes About Overthinking
Reading quotes about overthinking will help you in multiple ways. These quotes will help you one day because they can inspire you to act like the person in the passage did. They can give you the confidence needed to take that first step within seconds of thinking about it.
Secondly, reading these quotes daily will help you change your instinct to overthink in time. Putting your brain and emotions into these people’s words repeatedly will have a lasting effect that will make it easier for you to climb that wall obstructing you from making the change today.
Helpful Quotes
We are all about Mental Growth and sharing positive ways to help you feel better in your day-to-day life. Here are 6 more articles that will help different areas of your life.
91 Overthinking Quotes
- “The more you overthink the less you will understand.”
– Habeeb Akande - “It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.”
– Paulo Coelho - “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
– Napoleon Hill - “In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
– Theodore Roosevelt - “You only have control over three things in your life, the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take.”
– Jack Canfield - “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”
– Albert Einstein - “Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”
– Benjamin Franklin - “A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
– Karen Lamb - “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain - “Anxiety in children is originally nothing other than an expression of the fact they are feeling the loss of the person they love.”
– Sigmund Freud. - ” If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
– Amit Ray. - “A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.”
– Bertrand Russell. - “Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which we endure, and generally create ourselves.”
– Benjamin Disraeli. - “Concerning the factors of silence, solitude and darkness, we can only say that they are actually elements in the production of the infantile anxiety from which the majority of human beings have never become quite free.”
– Sigmund Freud. - “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”
– Epictetus. - “A mistake in judgment isn’t fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is.”
– Pauline Kael. - “No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.”
– Alan Watts. - “It has been well said that our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”
– Charles Spurgeon. - “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”
– Kahlil Gibran. - “If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry.”
– Dalai Lama. - “If you treat every situation like a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.”
– Dean Smith. - “Overthinking will not empower you over things that are beyond your control. So, let it be if it is meant to be and cherish the moment.”
– Mahsati A. - “Less thinking, more living.”
– S.R. Crawford. - “If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.”
– Dale Carnegie. - “I have to remind myself, stop thinking about the future. Stop thinking about what happened at work today, or another choice you could have made.”
– Anna Gunn. - “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte. - “When you begin to worry, go find something to do… worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.”
– Joyce Meyer. - “Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”
– Benjamin Franklin. - “You can’t change who you are, but you can change what you have in your head, you can refresh what you’re thinking about, you can put some fresh air in your brain.”
– Ernesto Bertarelli. - “Stop overthinking, put more energy on what you really want to do.”
– Amit Ray. - “If we could eliminate the ‘over’ and just think, then we could do, too. Only we’d be smarter doers because we’d be thinkers.”
– Sarah Strohmeyer. - “Don’t keep things bottled up. It’s not good for you.”
– Kody Keplinger. - “You know, it is a little known fact that thinking is entirely overrated. The world would be a much better place if we all did a lot less of it.”
– Laurie Viera Rigler. - “Stop thinking, and end your problems.”
– Lao Tzu. - “We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.” — Sir Anthony Hopkins
- “Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.” — Rumi
- “The more you overthink the less you will understand.” — Habeeb Akande
- “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” — George Bernard Shaw
- “You can’t change who you are, but you can change what you have in your head, you can refresh what you’re thinking about, you can put some fresh air in your brain.” — Ernesto Bertarelli
- “Don’t overthink things. Sometimes you can convince your head not to listen to your heart. Those are the decisions you regret for the rest of your life.” — Leah Braemel
- “Overthinking ruins moods and kills good vibes.” — Supa Nova Slom
- “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “We all know that feeling of being lonely in the whole damn world, despite the number of people around us. We are alone, in our own company. Surrounded by our thoughts and no superpower in the entire universe can help us to get rid of them. We cannot escape them just as we can’t stop our own imagination. We overthink non-stop. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.” — Ash Gabrieli, Petrichor
- “Overthinking is parasitic. It’s viral. It’s deadly, even.” — Genereux Philip
- “Everything is too easy. If you want to record a song, you can buy Pro Tools and record 400 guitar tracks. That leads to overthinking, which kills any spontaneity and the humanity of the performance.” — Jack White
- “Overthinking is often a product of undergoing.” — Yehuda Berg
- “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” — Steve Jobs
- “Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.” — W. Clement Stone
- “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
- “A crowded mind, Leaves no space, For a peaceful heart.” — Christine Evangelou
- “To think too much is a disease.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- “Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.” — Buddha
- “When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.” — Winston Churchill
- “Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, ‘What else could this mean?’” — Shannon L. Alder
- “So many thoughts, my kvothe. You know too much to be happy.” — Patrick Rothfuss
- “Sometimes we think and worry nonstop. It’s like having a cassette tape continually turning in our minds. When we leave the television set on for a long time, it becomes hot. Our head also gets hot from all our thinking. When we can’t stop, we may be unable to sleep well. Even if we take a sleeping pill, we continue to run, think, and worry in our dreams. The alternative medicine is mindful breathing. If we practice mindful breathing for five minutes, allowing our body to rest, then we stop thinking for that time. We can use words like ‘in’ and ‘out’ to help us be aware of our breathing. This is not thinking; these words aren’t concepts. They’re guides for mindfulness of breathing. When we think too much, the quality of our being is reduced. Stopping the thinking, we increase the quality of our being. There’s more peace, relaxation, and rest.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
- “You know, it is a little-known fact that thinking is entirely overrated. The world would be a much better place if we all did a lot less of it.” — Laurie Viera Rigler
- “Overthinking ruins you. It ruins the situation. And it twists things around. It makes you worry. Plus, it just makes everything worst than it actually is.” — Karen Salmansohn
- “It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.” — Paulo Coelho
- “This is probably the advantage of being stupid. Stupid people just do. We tend to overthink. If we could eliminate the ‘over’ and just think, then we could do, too. Only we’d be smarter doers because we’d be thinkers.” — Sarah Strohmeyer
- “Thinking too much leads to paralysis by analysis. It’s important to think things through, but many use thinking as a means of avoiding action.” — Robert Herjavek
- “Now that your worry has proved such an unlucrative business, why not find a better job?” — Hafez
- “Stop thinking, and end your problems.” — Lao Tzu
- “Remember, the talking about the thing isn’t the thing. Doing the thing is the thing.” — Amy Poehler
- “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” — Albert Einstein
- “Grandma once told me it’s easy to overthink love, to dissect it and question it until it is no more.” — Ellen Hopkins, Impulse
- “The sharpest minds often ruin their lives by overthinking the next step, while the dull win the race with eyes closed.” — Bethany Brookbank
- “My mother said the cure for thinking too much about yourself was helping somebody who was worse off than you.” — Sylvia Plath
- “Thinking has, many a time, made me sad, darling; but doing never did in all my life… My precept is, ‘Do something, my sister, do good if you can; but, at any rate, do something.’” — Elizabeth Gaskell
- “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” — William James
- “Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” — Robert Eliot, MD
- “Overthinking will not empower you over things that are beyond your control. So, let it be if it is meant to be and cherish the moment.” — Mahsati A.
- “Oh, how I’ve envied the lives of those who could spend life sitting down. A place to sit, a place to sit! I’d lament, circling my empty chair.” — Wolfgang Hilbig
- “If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry.” — Dalai Lama
- “Spend 80 percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.” — Brian Tracy
- “Don’t get too deep, it leads to overthinking, and overthinking leads to problems that don’t even exist in the first place.” — Jayson Engay
- “They say, ‘Look before you leap.’ So look. But do not look for too long. Do not look into the void of uncertainty trying to predict each and every possible outcome, to evaluate every possible mistake, to prevent each possible failure. Look for the opportunity to leap, and leap faster than your fear can grab you. Leap before you talk yourself out of it, before you convince yourself to set up a temporary camp that turns into a permanent delay on your journey into your own heart.” — Vironika Tugaleva
- “When you’ve had a life of overthinking, you have the same reaction time and time again. Shyness becomes habitual.” — Joel Annesley, Quiet Confidence: Breaking Up With Shyness
- “I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.” — Jonathan Safran Foer
- “Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as the capacity of your mind to be calm and stable.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “While you were overthinking, you missed everything worth feeling.” — Nitya Prakash
- “In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain
- “Overthinking is the biggest cause of our unhappiness. Keep yourself occupied. Keep your mind off things that don’t help you.” — Unknown
- “He never complicates a desire by overthinking it, unlike Mirabelle, who spins a cocoon around an idea until it is immobile.” — Steve Martin, Shopgirl
- “My father taught me not to overthink things, that nothing will ever be perfect, so just keep moving and do your best.” — Scott Eastwood
- “Less thinking, more living.” — S.R. Crawford
- “Sometimes you’re overthinking, you convince yourself to get out of it, and you’re like, ‘Ah, I shoulda did that!’ You can’t live life with regrets.” — Michael B. Jordan
- “I have to remind myself, stop thinking about the future. Stop thinking about what happened at work today, or another choice you could have made.” — Anna Gunn
- “Every time the days morphed into night, my mind spun around like a carousel. What was it about the night that made people overthink everything?” — Morgan Lee Miller, Hammers, Strings, and Beautiful Things
- “The best way to stop overthinking is conscious micro action meditation.” — Amit Ray
Frequently Asked Questions
Overthinking is not a mental illness. Overthinking is a daily habit millions of people do daily, some at larger scales than others. Overthinking can halt your progress in getting out of your mental health rut like depression, stress, anxiety and more.
Overthinkers are no smarter or less smart than anyone else. Overthinking comes from many factors: the uncertainty of what will happen when going down a new path is one of them. Most people overthink because they lack the confidence to try something new and fail.
The thoughts of an overthink are many; this is why you have such a hard time taking action. Most overthinkers will think about all the negative outcomes to a possible future action they could take. Instead of trying the action in real life and adjusting as they go, an overthinker will run many sequences in their head and come to a conclusion from that.
You overthink because you are not 100% confident in your actions. You probably have made a choice in the past that was wrong, leaving you with the feeling of failure. Instead of allowing that failure to come and pass, learning from it to make yourself better and grow as a human. You have chosen only to act when you are 100% sure of success, making you overthink.
