People are just afraid of things too much. Afraid of things that don’t necessarily merit fear.

Where the mind goes, the man follows.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

If I’d found out that Norman Mailer liked me. I’d have killed myself.

Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

I’m not that keen on the idea of being unconscious.

A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

We have an obligation to help people that cannot help themselves. The mentally retarded, the physically retarded, et cetera.

If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

People use irony as a defense mechanism.

Kids who have an understanding of how and why their feelings are what they are are much more likely to talk to us about what’s happening, and they have better skills to work it out.

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

I don’t want to wake up and be bored. That’s probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I’ve been on for a long time and had success with? I don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.

Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, ‚I’m not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.‘ Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, ‚Yes, I deserve it.‘

I had slumps that lasted into the winter.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable. As a result, the atmosphere of our home was super-charged with fear because you never knew if what you did would make him mad or not.

Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.

There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.

I think I have a big fear of things spiraling out of control. Out of control and dangerous and reckless and thoughtless scares me, because people get hurt.

Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we’ve always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out. I’m not proud.

Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.

As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

As a human being, anger is a part of our mind. Irritation also part of our mind. But you can do – anger come, go. Never keep in your sort of – your inner world, then create a lot of suspicion, a lot of distrust, a lot of negative things, more worry.

Anxiety and spiritual searching have been consistent themes with me, and that figures into my worldview. But I tend to make my songs sound like relationship songs.

I think women go crazy for a reason. It’s not like it just happens.

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.

I worked with someone who told me they’d never like me. But for some reason, I just felt like I needed her approval. So I started changing myself to please her. It made me stop being social and friendly. I was so unhappy.

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane, If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane, If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane.

I’ve often felt depressed; everyone feels depressed.

Death is a fearful thing.

I don’t think anybody in America ought to be scared.

I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be all right, even when you’re not sure it is.

Because of its phantom nature, and despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and insecure, and it sees itself as constantly under threat. This, by the way, is the case even if the ego is outwardly very confident.

Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.

If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.

I’ve 20,000 hours of clinical practice; you’re not naive after the first few thousand. I’ve helped people deal with things that most people can’t imagine.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

Well, there are some things that I just can’t get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while. Sometimes they’re of my own creation, as well – and they’re just as annoying. It’s not only other people’s ear worms that bug me, it’s my own, as well.

Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking.

Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.

I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up, so I checked into college for a little bit. I took classes at a community college in West L.A. I took psychology, English, and philosophy.

A great hallmark of mental wellness is the ability to be in the present moment, fully and with no thoughts of being elsewhere.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

The collective unconscious consists of the sum of the instincts and their correlates, the archetypes. Just as everybody possesses instincts, so he also possesses a stock of archetypal images.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.

Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.