Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
— William Shakespeare
Useful Fretful quotations
Do not fret, for God did not create us to abandon us.
Christ never was in a hurry. There was no rushing forward, no anticipating, no fretting over what might be. Each day's duties were done as each day brought them, and the rest was left with God.
Not making a decision is the worst thing you can do.
So long as you feel you made the right decision based on the information you had at that time, there's no need to fret about it. If it fails, you'll know what to do next time.
All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.
If you don't like your situation in life, don't fret or worry--do something about it. Worry less, and act more.
Being and stability are regarded by our contemporaries as akin to death;
they cannot live unless they act, fret, or distract themselves with this or that. Their spirit (provided we can still talk about a spirit in their case) feeds only on sensations and on dynamism, thus becoming the vehicle for the incarnation of darker forces.
People in obedience to the Lord do not worry, do not fret, do not need to know all of the outcomes before they are willing to commit themselves.
This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o-erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire.
We are not to be anxious about the unknown future or to fret about it.
We are to live in a moment-by-moment dependence upon God.
When we are children we seldom think of the future.
This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.
Let your cares drive you to God. I shall not mind if you have many of them if each one leads you to prayer. If every fret makes you lean more on the Beloved, it will be a benefit.
Pick the day. Enjoy it– to the hilt.
My idea of forgiveness is letting go of resentment that does not serve your better interest, ridding yourself of negative thoughts. All they do is make you miserable. Believe me, you can fret and fume all you want, but whoever it was that wronged you is not suffering from your anguish whatsoever.
You can never be free until you develop the mental strength to stop fretting over things you cannot control.
On their sofas of spice and feathers, the concubines also slept fretfully.
In those days the Earth was still flat, and people dreamed often of falling over edges.
See things that you want as already yours.
Know that they will come to you at need. Then let them come. Don't fret and worry about them. Don't think about your lack of them. Think of them as yours, as belonging to you, as already in your possession.
Home is a place in the mind. When it is empty, it frets. It is fretful with memory, faces and places and times gone by. Beloved images rise up in disobedience and make a mirror for emptiness.
We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterdays.
We mourn the transitory things and fret under the yoke of the immutable ones.
If you're gonna fret, fret over something you can change.
Then stop fretting and do something about it.
The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.
Do not fret over the ignorant person;
surely they have not had the opportunities which illuminated your path.
We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future;
men of discernment deal only with the present moment.
Pick the day. Enjoy it - to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come... The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present - and I don't want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil; while fretting and fuming only serves to increase your own torments.
While Eeyore frets ... ... and Piglet hesitates ... and Rabbit calculates ... and Owl pontificates ...Pooh just is.
Idle hands make fretful minds.
Solitude with God repairs the damage done by the fret and noise and clamour of the world.
When Buddhists say, "A bodhisattva fears not the result, but only the cause," they mean that we must expend the bulk of our energy planting good roots today, rather than fretting about the plants that are already growing from the roots we planted in the past.
If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
To me the gospel is not a great mass of theological jargon.
It is a simple and beautiful and logical thing, with one quiet truth following another in orderly sequence. I do not fret over the mysteries. I do not worry whether the heavenly gates swing or slide. I am only concerned that they open.
The heart is like an instrument whose strings Steal nobler music from Life's many frets: The golden threads are spun thro' Suffering's fire, Wherewith the marriage-robes for heaven are woven: And all the rarest hues of human life Take radiance, and are rainbow'd out in tears.
If a ship has been sunk, I can't bring it up.
If it is going to be sunk, I can't stop it. I can use my time much better working on tomorrow's problem than by fretting about yesterday's. Besides, if I let those things get me, I wouldn't last long.