44 Stress-Relief Quotes

In today's fast-paced world, stress seems to be an inevitable part of our daily lives. Whether it's work-related pressure, personal concerns, or the constant buzz of notifications, finding moments of calm can feel daunting. This collection of 44 stress-relief quotes aims to offer solace and perspective, serving as gentle reminders that relaxation and peace are within reach. These handpicked quotes encapsulate wisdom from thinkers, authors, and leaders across time, providing you with encouragement and insight to navigate through challenging times with grace. Take a deep breath, pause, and let these words guide you to a serene state of mind.

1. “Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.” - Jane Wagner

2. “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” - Leonard Bernstein

3. “As her analyst had told her: the deeper buried the distress, the further into the body it went. The digestive system was about as far as it could go to hide.” - Richard Matheson

4. “I wish...I wish I were dead...”“And what use would that be to anyone?” - J.K. Rowling

5. “In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.” - Fred Rogers

6. “If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.” - Shantideva

7. “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” - Steve Maraboli

8. “There is a tonic strength, in the hour of sorrow and affliction, in escaping from the world and society and getting back to the simple duties and interests we have slighted and forgotten. Our world grows smaller, but it grows dearer and greater. Simple things have a new charm for us, and we suddenly realize that we have been renouncing all that is greatest and best, in our pursuit of some phantom.” - William George Jordan

9. “Stress level: extreme. It's like she was a jar with the lid screwed on too tight, and inside the jar were pickles, angry pickles, and they were fermenting, and about to explode.” - Fiona Wood

10. “My body needs laughter as much as it needs tears. Both are cleansers of stress.” - Mahogany SilverRain

11. “Ladies, stress shows on your face. Happiness is the true beauty weapon."As quoted in The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets ( Kym Douglas / Cindy Pearlman, 2006)” - Susan Sarandon

12. “sleep is such a luxury, which i cant afford.” - Robin Sikarwar

13. “I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth diminishing your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.” - Steve Maraboli

14. “How well I know with what burning intensity you live. You have experienced many lives already, including several you have shared with me- full rich lives from birth to death, and you just have to have these rest periods in between.” - Anais Nin

15. “Come back!" the Caterpillar called after her. "I've something important to say."This sounded promising, certainly. Alice turned and came back again."Keep your temper," said the Caterpillar.” - Lewis Carroll

16. “Someone told me sleep was the cousin of death and followin’ the dollar finds nothin’ but stress.” - Mac Miller

17. “Each moment of worry, anxiety or stress represents lack of faith in miracles, for they never cease.” - T.F. Hodge

18. “Stress is the trash of modern life-we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.” - Danzae Pace

19. “The theistic philosopher has a tendency to devalue insufficient worldviews, ideologies, and quite often common sense for the greater good, and in such cases, one should not be discouraged when seen as a bad guy. If he stresses over man's perception of a righteous heart, then he has given his heart to man.” - Criss Jami

20. “I began my studies with eagerness. Before me I saw a new world opening in beauty and light, and I felt within me the capacity to know all things. In the wonderland of Mind I should be as free as another [with sight and hearing]. Its people, scenery, manners, joys, and tragedies should be living tangible interpreters of the real world. The lecture halls seemed filled with the spirit of the great and wise, and I thought the professors were the embodiment of wisdom... But I soon discovered that college was not quite the romantic lyceum I had imagined. Many of the dreams that had delighted my young inexperience became beautifully less and "faded into the light of common day." Gradually I began to find that there were disadvantages in going to college. The one I felt and still feel most is lack of time. I used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to the inner melodies of the spirit, which one hears only in leisure moments when the words of some loved poet touch a deep, sweet chord in the soul that until then had been silent. But in college there is no time to commune with one's thoughts. One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think. When one enters the portals of learning, one leaves the dearest pleasures – solitude, books and imagination – outside with the whispering pines. I suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future enjoyment, but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day.” - Helen Keller

21. “There are times when I long to sweep away half the things I am expected to learn; for the overtaxed mind cannot enjoy the treasure it has secured at the greatest cost. ... When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use. At the present time my mind is so full of heterogeneous matter that I almost despair of ever being able to put it in order. Whenever I enter the region of my mind I feel like the proverbial bull in the china shop. A thousand odds and ends of knowledge come crashing about my head like hailstones, and when I try to escape them, theme goblins and college nixies of all sorts pursue me, until I wish – oh, may I be forgiven the wicked wish! – that I might smash the idols I came to worship.” - Helen Keller

22. “The storm before the calm.” - Cameron Conaway

23. “The most important reason for your “no” is that you need your downtime so you won’t behave like a jerk because you’re depleted. And you don’t want to battle an appetite spiked by the stress of overcommitment. But that’s your secret; others don’t need that information. So just smile, say no, thank you, and keep moving.” - Holly Mosier

24. “It was after I first began to uplift my thoughts a bit that my cravings for junk food started to dissipate. I did not connect the two at that time. First, I simply noticed that I didn’t need to sleep so much. It took a while before I realized that in addition to my improved energy level, there was a direct correlation between chewing on mental garbage and putting garbage in my mouth.” - Holly Mosier

25. “Not all addictions are rooted in abuse or trauma, but I do believe they can all be traced to painful experience. A hurt is at the centre of all addictive behaviours. It is present in the gambler, the Internet addict, the compulsive shopper and the workaholic. The wound may not be as deep and the ache not as excruciating, and it may even be entirely hidden—but it’s there. As we’ll see, the effects of early stress or adverse experiences directly shape both the psychology and the neurobiology of addiction in the brain.” - Gabor Mate

26. “PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.” - Susan Pease Banitt

27. “The person senses what it feels like to be free from inhibitions. At the same time he feels connected and integrated – with his body and, through his body, with his environment. He has a sense of well-being and inner peace. He gains the knowledge that the life of the body resides in its involuntary aspect. […] Unfortunately these beautiful feelings do not always hold up under the stress of daily living in our modern culture. The pace, the pressure and the philosophy of our times are antithetical to life.” - Alexander Lowen

28. “Gail loved to talk about how stressed she was. She would do this thing where we'd be walking in the hallway, and suddenly she'd stop in her tracks, rub both of her temples with her index and middle fingers, and theatrically let out a deep guttural moan: "Mooooog.""Mooog. Minz. I am just so stressed out," she'd say. "I just want to go home, open a bottle of red wine, draw up a hot bath, light some candles and listen to David Gray." A note about me: I do not think stress is a legitimate topic of conversation, in public anyway. No one ever wants to hear how stressed out anyone else is, because most of the time everyone is stressed out. Going on and on in detail about how stressed out I am isn't conversation. It'll never lead anywhere. No one is going to say, "Wow, Mindy, you really have it especially bad. I have heard some stories of stress, but this just takes the cake.” - Mindy Kaling

29. “...the child trying not to appear as a child, of the strenuousness with which she tried to present the face of a convincing adult.” - Joan Didion

30. “Our whole family thrives under pressure. It's like our family motto or something.Apart from my brother Peter, of course. He had a nervous break down. But the rest of us.” - Sophie Kinsella

31. “Your job is obviously very pressured.""I thrive under pressure," I explain. Which is true. I've known that about myself ever since...Well. Ever since my mother told me when I was about 8.” - Sophie Kinsella

32. “Worrying is like a dominoes effect, that rolls from one day into the next, into a week, a month, a year;never accomplishing anything but stress, until it hits that last tile, which drops unfulfilled to an empty ground.” - Anthony Liccione

33. “... A lobotomy involved some kind of rod or probe inserted through the eyesocket,the term was always "frontal" lobotomy;but was there any other kind?Knowing that internal stress could cause failure on the exam merely set up internal stress about the prospect of internal stress. There must be some other way to deal with the knowledge of the disastrous consequences fear and stress could bring about.Some answer or trick of the will:the ability not to think about it.What if everyone knew this trick but Claude Sylvanshine?He tended to conceptualize some ultimate,platonic-level Terror as a bird of prey in whose mere aloft shadow the prey was stricken and paralyzed,tembling as the shadow enlarged and became inevitability.He frequently had this feeling:What if there was something essentially wrong with Claude Sylvanshine that wasn't wrong with other people?What if he was simply ill-suited,the way some people are born without limbs or certain organs?The neurology of failure.What if he was simply born and destined to live in the shadow of Total Fear and Despair,and all his so called activities were pathetic attempts to distract him from the inevitable?...” - David Foster Wallace

34. “In adverse circumstances, every creature becomes something else, evolving or devolving. What makes us human is that we know what we once were, and, let us hope, we remember how to change back.” - Brian Herbert

35. “It isn't stress that makes us fall - it's how we respond to stressful events.” - Wayde Goodall

36. “Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.” - Walter Brueggemann

37. “Personally, I like a chocolate-covered sky. Dark, dark chocolate. People say it suits me. I do, however, try to enjoy every color I see - the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavors, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edge off the stress. It helps me relax.” - Markus Zusak

38. “Peace of mind arrives the moment you come to peace with the contents of your mind.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

39. “Even in the most stressed times there is always time for reading.” - Emilie and Stephanie

40. “Sometimes it happens that you become one, in some rare moment. Watch the ocean, the tremendous wildness of it--and suddenly you forget your split, your schizophrenia; you relax. Or, moving in the Himalayas, seeing the virgin snow on the Himalayan peaks, suddenly a coolness surrounds you and you need not be false because there is no other human being to be false to. You fall together.” - Osho

41. “There are often great lessons to be learned at the roots of stress, drama, and heartache. Don’t let the magnitude of the circumstance blind you to the value of the lesson.” - Steve Maraboli

42. “When you are stressed on mind...to pour it out, is the behaviour, most kind!” - Sujit Lalwani

43. “The response to stress is not less time in God's Word, but more.” - Dillon Burroughs

44. “Why couldn’t I find one action that would make the need to binge automatically disappear? Because there is no magic action to make that horrible prebinge feeling go away. The cool thing is that we are designed so that the feeling will pass through us on its own—in time. All we have to do is sit there and feel what is going on inside of us. We must experience the feelings. To help us deal with the feelings, we can call someone on our support team. We can also express the feelings by focusing on our breath or even hitting a pillow. The important thing to remember is that no matter how terrible, feelings do pass. It takes patience and trust—not food . . .” - Jenni Schaefer