91+ Quotes About Overthinking To Help Calm Your Mind

Overthinking is when someone thinks about one thing again and again.

Overthinking can lead to people worrying about situations in their heads that might never happen. It is a practice best avoided when you can, but stopping overthinking can be easier said than done.

Overthinking might be a result of anxiety, which can trigger overthinking at any time, and this is often out of the person's control. Excessive overthinking can affect our personal happiness, our relationships with others, and our entire lives. It might help to read up on these overthinking quotes to become more cautious of it.

If you like these quotes about overthinking, why not check out these [quotes about thinking] and calm quotes too?

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Here we have some of the best overthinking quotes that can help you stop overthinking.

1. "The more I think about it, the more I realize that overthinking isn't the real problem. The real problem is that we don't trust."

- L.J. Vanier.

2. "If you’re stressing over happiness, you’re doing it wrong!"

- Shannon L. Alder.

3. "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.

4. "I think and think and think, I‘ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it."

- Jonathan Safran Foer.

5. "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."

- Van Wilder, 'Van Wilder: Party Liaison', 2002.

6. "To think too much is a disease."

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

7. "Don't get too deep, it leads to overthinking, and over thinking leads to problems that doesn't even exist in the first place."

- Jayson Engay.

8. "Don't think. it complicates things. Just feel, and if it feels like home then follow its path."

- R.M. Drake.

9. "Overthinking, also best known as creating problems that are never there."

- David Sikhosana.

10. "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.

11. "Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever."

- Leo Buscaglia.

12. "The more you overthink the less you will understand."

- Habeeb Akande.

13. "Stop worrying about what tomorrow may bring. Focus on what you can control. Stay positive. Enjoy today. Expect good things to come."

- Karen Salmansohn.

14. "We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything."

- Anthony Hopkins.

15. "Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday."

- Brian Tracy.

Below are some overthinking quotes to remind you of the dangers of overthinking.

16. "Over thinking ruins moods and kills good vibes."

- Supa Nova Slom.

17. "My father taught me not to overthink things, that nothing will ever be perfect, so just keep moving and do your best."

- Scott Eastwood.

18. "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.

19. "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.

20. "Overthinking can lead to worrying which leads to anxiety. Anxiety can at times be crippling, leave people frozen and unable to act".

- Brien Blatt.

21. "I admire the linear and decisive way a certain kind of man thinks, to my curlicue boundless overthinking."

- J. Courtney Sullivan.

22. "Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking."

- Rumi.

23. "Thinking will not overcome fear but action will."

- W. Clement Stone.

24. "Everything is too easy. If you want to record a song, you can buy Pro Tools and record four hundred guitar tracks. That leads to overthinking, which kills any spontaneity and the humanity of the performance."

- Jack White.

25. "Most of us never stop to consider our blessings; rather, we spend the day only thinking about our problems."

- Bernie Siegel.

26. "Overthinking is parasitic. It’s viral. It’s deadly, even."

- Genereux Philip.

27. "The main things to rebel against - over-production, too much technology, overthinking."

- Jack White.

28. "I have found that sometimes I do better working on a crazy schedule. It gives me less time to overthink things and forces me to be present."

- Torrey DeVitto.

29. "Worrying how things go wrong doesn’t help things go right."

- Karen Salmansohn.

30. "Overthinking is often a product of underdoing."

- Yehuda Berg.

Overthinking can lead to and be caused by anxiety. Here are a few anxiety quotes for you to stay cautious.

31. "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.

32. "If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath."

- Amit Ray.

33. "A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety."

- Bertrand Russell.

34. "Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which we endure, and generally create ourselves."

- Benjamin Disraeli.

35. "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.

36. "Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems."

- Epictetus.

37. "A mistake in judgment isn't fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is."

- Pauline Kael.

38. "No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen."

- Alan Watts.

39. "It has been well said that our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength."

- Charles Spurgeon.

40. "Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it."

- Kahlil Gibran.

These are some quotes about not overthinking that might tell you why and how to stop doing it. If you are buying a house, but are worried that you are overthinking the process, keep these quotes in mind.

41. "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.

42. "If you treat every situation like a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times."

- Dean Smith.

43. "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.

44. "Less thinking, more living."

- S.R. Crawford.

45. "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.

46. "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.

47. "Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in."

- Napoleon Bonaparte.

48. "When you begin to worry, go find something to do… worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem."

- Joyce Meyer.

49. "Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."

- Benjamin Franklin.

50. "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.

51. "Stop overthinking, put more energy on what you really want to do."

- Amit Ray.

52. "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.

53. "Don’t keep things bottled up. It’s not good for you."

- Kody Keplinger.

54. "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.

55. "Stop thinking, and end your problems."

- Lao Tzu.

If we are prone to overthinking, it can be useful to try to clear our minds. Here are a few quotes to help you calm your mind.

56. "The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another."

- William James.

57. "Doing something that is productive is a great way to alleviate emotional stress. Get your mind doing something that is productive."

- Ziggy Marley.

58. "Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it."

- Brian Tracy.

59. "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.

60. "It's always the mind that needs quietening and the heart that needs listening to."

- Rasheed Ogunlaru.

61. "There is nothing in this world that can trouble you as much as your own thoughts."

- Unknown.*

62. "Step outside for a while - calm your mind. It is better to hug a tree than to bang your head against a wall continually."

- Rasheed Ogunlaru.

63. "Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility."

- Marcus Aurelius.

64. "The nearer a man comes to a calm mind the closer he is to strength."

- Marcus Aurelius.

65. "You don't have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you."

- Dan Millman.

These are a few quotes about overthinking love quotes about overthinking, quotes about overthinking at night and more from various books.

66. "The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks."

- Christopher Hitchens, 'Letters To A Young Contrarian'.

67. "The downside of being a writer is you get plenty of time to overthink your life."

- Don Miller, 'Scary Close'.

68. "You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute."

- Tina Fey, 'Bossypants'.

69. "He never complicates a desire by overthinking it, unlike Mirabelle, who spins a cocoon around an idea until it is immobile."

- Steve Martin, 'Shopgirl'.

70. "You take a photo, but you rarely post. You write, but you rarely publish. All of this is because your overthinking mind cannot stop thinking about how you will be perceived by the outside world."

- Joel Annesley, 'Quiet Confidence: Breaking Up With Shyness'.

71. "Grandma once told me it's easy to overthink love, to dissect it and question it until it is no more."

- Ellen Hopkins, 'Impulse'.

72. "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'.

73. "The sensible part of me wanted to dissect my emotions, overthinking and overcomplicating my reaction to Jev. But a more physical and immediate part was tired of allowing logic to chase me in circles."

- Becca Fitzpatrick, 'Silence'.

74. "My mother said the cure for thinking too much about yourself was helping somebody who was worse off than you."

- Sylvia Plath, 'The Bell Jar'.

75. "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'.

76. "The sharpest minds often ruin their lives by overthinking the next step, while the dull win the race with eyes closed."

- Bethany Brookbank, 'Write Like No One Is Reading'.

77. "So many thoughts, my kvothe. you know too much to be happy."

- Patrick Rothfuss, 'The Wise Man's Fear'.

78. "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 Herjavec, 'The Will To Win: Leading, Competing, Succeeding'.

79. "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison."

- Hamlet, William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet', Act II, Scene II.

80. "Thinking has, many a time, made me sad, darling; but doing never did in all my life."

- Elizabeth Gaskell, 'North And South'.

81. “While you were overthinking, you missed everything worth feeling.”

― Nitya Prakash.

Since these funny quotes about overthinking are mainly popular sayings and memes, their source is unknown. We love them, so if you do know where they're from please let us know!

82. "Overthinking makes you dwell in the past and immerse yourself in worries and fears, instead of living in the present and acting in the present."

- Unknown.*

83. "Think it over, don't overthink."

- Unknown.*

84. "Pain changes people. It makes them trust less, overthink more, and shut people out."

- Unknown.*

85. "Stop overthinking. You can’t control everything, just let it be."

- Unknown.*

86. "Overthinking is the biggest cause of our unhappiness. Keep yourself occupied. Keep your mind off things that don't help you."

- Unknown.*

87. "If overthinking burned calories, I’d be a supermodel."

- Unknown.*

88. "Stop worrying about what can go wrong, and get excited about what can go right."

- Unknown.*

89. "Overthinking ruins friendships and relationships. Overthinking creates problems you never had. Don’t overthink, just overflow with good vibes."

- Unknown.*

90. "Dear mind, please stop thinking so much at night. I need sleep."

- Unknown.*

91. "Remember, absolutely nothing good can come out of overthinking it."

- Unknown.*

At Kidadl, we have created lots of family-friendly quotes for everyone! If you liked these quotes about overthinking, why not check out these quotes about knowing yourself and quotes about maturity too?

*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at [email protected]