115 Relatable Quotes About Overthinking to Inspire Peacefulness and Letting Go

Morgan Bailee Boggess

June 9, 2024 at 9:40 PM·15 min read

Can’t sleep because you’re laying in bed for hours at night replaying conversations in your head, wondering if you said the right thing? What about analyzing every tiny detail of a situation, even when it's out of your control? Do you take a long time to make decisions because you’re too busy analyzing all the possible outcomes? You will likely relate to these 115 overthinking quotes!

Merriam-Webster defines "overthinking" as “to think too much about (something); to put too much time into thinking about or analyzing (something) in a way that is more harmful than helpful.”

You're likely an overthinker if this all sounds like you. At the time, it might feel like you’re doing yourself a favor by deeply analyzing a situation, but research shows it’s actually unhealthy to think about things too much. It increases your chances of depression, disrupts your sleep and causes fatigue.

Dealing with the anxiety and stress that accompanies overthinking isn’t an easy job, either. Practicing mindfulness, taking up a new hobby, journaling, challenging negative, obsessive thoughts and speaking to a therapist (or other mental health professional) are all ways to help stop overthinking.

Learning the wisdom of others is another way to increase your knowledge about combatting overthinking. Here’s a list of the best quotes about overthinking to get you started.

Related: 105 Insomnia Quotes for When Those Long, Restless Nights Feel Like They'll Never End

Best Overthinking Quotes

"Overthinking ruins you. Ruins the situation, twists things around, makes you worry, and just makes everything much worse than it actually is." - Karen Salmansohn
“Let us not be so busy rushing to get somewhere else that we fail to stop and appreciate all the miracles.” - Vernon Sankey
“The sharpest minds often ruin their lives by overthinking the next step, while the dull win the race with eyes closed.” - Bethany Brookbank
“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
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” - Napoleon Bonaparte
“The mind, once enlightened, cannot again become dark.” - Thomas Paine
"You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - Martin Luther King Jr.
“If you want to conquer overthinking, bring your mind to the present moment and reconnect it with the immediate world.” - Amit Ray
“Only about two percent of one percent of our thoughts deserve to be taken seriously.” - Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.” - Lao Tzu
“My mother said the cure for thinking too much about yourself was helping somebody who was worse off than you.” - Sylvia Plath
“People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” - George Bernard Shaw
“Most of us never stop to consider our blessings; rather, we spend the day only thinking about our problems. But since you have to be alive to have problems, be grateful for the opportunity to have them.” - Bernie Siegel
“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
“We have anxious thoughts because the brain is trying to keep us alive. To the brain, survival is much more important than happiness. So, the brain often conjures up worst case scenarios and “what ifs”, so that we can prepare for disaster. The trouble is, the brain regularly gets it wrong.” - Dr. Lucy Russell, Clinical Psychologist
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” - Maya Angelou
“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it's often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.” - Brené Brown

Short Overthinking Quotes

"Overthinking is the art of creating problems that weren't even there." - Anonymous
“To think too much is a disease.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“The more you overthink the less you will understand.” - Habeeb Akande
“What others say of me matters little; what I myself say and do matters much.” - Mara Santilli
“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” - Swedish Proverb
“We drink the poison our minds pour for us and wonder why we feel sick.” - Atticus
“Just say no to overthinking.” - Unknown
“Life is meant to be lived, not over-thought.” - Unknown
“While you were overthinking, you missed everything worth feeling.” - Nitya Prakash
“The clouds don't overthink; they just drift.” - Avijeet Das
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” - William Shakespeare
“Trust the still, small voice that says, 'This might work and I'll try it.'” – Diane Mariechild

Deep Quotes About Overthinking

"Sometimes you can’t calm the storm, so it’s best to stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass." - Timber Hawkeye
"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
“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
“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
“Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.” - Rumi
“Let your self-consciousness, your scrutiny, your self-interrogation, exhaust themselves on that; and if otherwise fortunately circumstanced you will inhale happiness with the air you breathe, without dwelling on it or thinking about it, without either forestalling it in imagination, or putting it to flight by fatal questioning.” - John Stuart Mill
“The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity — the thinker.” - Eckart Tolle
“The more you stay in your head, the less you get ahead.” — Anonymous
“Anxiety can be replaced only by the freedom whose harsh requirements are its cause. Being free requires us to release the brakes that anxiety represents in order to accept and appropriate our proper spiritual fulfillment or perhaps even to recognize, if that is what we in the end believe, that no such prospect is in store.” - S?ren Kierkegaard
“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“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 Marabol
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” - Marcus Aurelius

Instagram-Worthy Quotes About Overthinking

"Worrying is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere." - Erma Bombeck
“Don’t let overthinking steal your sunshine.” - Unknown
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." -Buddha
“Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.” - Anonymous
“Breathe, and it will all get easier." - Unknown
“Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.” - Anonymous
“She'd read somewhere that if you gave your brain tasks to do it stopped overthinking. She'd given herself a lot of tasks. Sometimes she felt like a robot. It seemed like a lifetime since she'd felt human.” - Sarah Morgan
“If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.”- Dean Smith
“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
“You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” - Walter Hagen
“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” - John Green

Stop Overthinking Quotes

"Stop overthinking. You can’t control everything, just let it be." - Anonymous
“It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.” – Paulo Coelho
“Of the thousands of decisions you make every day, the majority are simply not worth draining your brain power over.” - Katie McCallum
“Stop worrying about what can go wrong, and get excited about what can go right.” - Dr. Alexis Carrel
“You are capable of amazing things. Trust the process and let go of overthinking.” - Anonymous
“If we hope to successfully tackle overthinking, we need to take a step back rather than trying to work through the problem from inside our own rumination.” - Nick Trenton
“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.” - Tony Robbins
“If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think.” - Oprah Winfrey
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” - Nelson Mandela
“While focusing on the present moment, we soothe our minds and construe our intuition and inner wisdom. Our mindfulness allows us to access lower levels of awareness and gain insight into our reflections and emotions. At the same time, it lessens overthinking and anxiety.” - Erik Pevernagie
“Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.” - Brian Tracy

Funny Overthinking Quotes

“I thought about starting an 'overthinkers anonymous group,' but I couldn't make up my mind.” - Anonymous
“If you're an overthinker and you know it, raise your hand. (Which one? Left or right? How high? Arm too?)” - Unknown
“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
"I’m an overthinker. My thoughts start out as a nice little walk in the park and end up in a full-on marathon." - Anonymous
"Why overthink when you can nap?" - Anonymous
“Hey, you! Get out of your head.” - Unknown
“My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne.” - Tina Fey
"Overthinking is like using a chainsaw to cut butter." - Anonymous
"I’m in a committed relationship with overthinking." - Anonymous
“Sometimes you lie in bed at night and you don’t have a single thing to worry about. That always worries me!” - Charlie Brown
"Hold on, let me overthink this." - Anonymous
"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet." - Rodney Dangerfield
"My brain has too many tabs open." - Anonymous
"Overthinking is my cardio." - Anonymous

Quotes About the Impact of Overthinking

"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
“Overthinking can lead to worrying, which leads to anxiety. Anxiety can at times be crippling, leave people frozen and unable to act.” - Brien Blatt
“But the truth is that overthinking often doesn’t lead anywhere, because the overthinker gets trapped in the cycle of analyzing, rejecting, and reconsidering different possibilities. It’s like scratching an itch that just won’t go away.” - Nick Trenton
"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." - Anthony Hopkins
“Doing something that is productive is a great way to alleviate emotional stress. Get your mind doing something that is productive.” - Ziggy Marley
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”- Albert Einstein
“A crowded mind, Leaves no space, for a peaceful heart.” - Christine Evangelou
“Our brain is an extraordinarily helpful tool, but when we overthink, we only undermine its power.” - Nick Trenton
"Overthinking is a dream killer. Sometimes you can drown yourself in your own thoughts." - Steve Maraboli
“I get anxious about everything. I just can’t stop thinking about things all the time. And here’s the really destructive part — it’s always retrospective. I waste time thinking of what I should have said or done.” - Hugh Laurie
“I have realized sometimes I do better working under a crazy schedule. It gives me less time to overthink things and forces me to be present.” - Torrey DeVitto
“Overthinking is parasitic. It’s viral. It’s deadly, even.” - Genereux Philip
“Nothing happens by overthinking; then why stress? Is it too hard to sit down and relax?” - Sukant Ratnakar

Quotes About Overthinking at Night

"The longer you lay awake at night overthinking, the harder the next day will be." - Unknown
“I spend a lot of nights thinkingHow did I make it this far?" - Wiz Khalifa
"Some people go to bed at night thinking, 'That was a good day.' I am one of those who worries and asks, 'How did I screw up today?" Tom Hanks
“Overthinking at night is simply the sign of an overcrowded mind.” - Anonymous
"At night, my mind does not rest. It just endlessly wanders." - Unknown
“If your dreams involve analyzing things, that's a sign that you think too much.” - Anonymous
“My nights are for overthinking. My mornings are for oversleeping.” - Unknown
"Don't lose your sleep overthinking about things you can't change. Let it go and rest." - Sonya Parker
"At night, I can't sleep. In the morning, I can't wake up. Overthinking keeps me in a vicious cycle." - Anonymous
"You can't change what happened, so don't waste your time thinking about it. Move on, let go, and get some sleep." - Mel Robbins
"The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets." - Poppy Z. Brite
"Overthinking is the thief of sleep." - Unknown

Quotes About Overthinking in a Relationship

“Sometimes the questions are complicated, and the answers are simple. Stop overthinking your relationship.” - Anonymous
"You can't logic your way in or out of it. Love is totally non-sensical." - How I Met Your Mother
“Overthinking your relationship is like trying to find a needle in a haystack; you think you'll find it, but you never do." - Unknown
“You can't think yourself into love, but you can overthink yourself (or your partner) out of love.” - Anonymous
“The best way to deal with relationship anxiety is by being honest, open, and understanding with your partner — these qualities will go a long way in helping you both overcome any fears or insecurities together.” - Dr. Sue Johnson
"Sometimes you have to stop worrying, wondering, and doubting in love. Have faith that things will work out, maybe not how you planned, but just how they’re meant to be." - Drake
"The best way to avoid overthinking in a romantic relationship is to focus on what you can control and let go of what you cannot." - Anonymous
"The greatest weapon against relationship stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." - William James
"Trust your heart in love, don’t let your mind ruin something special." - Anonymous
"We can learn a lot from relationship anxiety; namely, that we are capable of experiencing strong emotion without being ruled by it." - Dr. Robert Leahy
“One of the most powerful antidotes to relationship anxiety lies in learning how to practice self-compassion and give yourself grace when things don’t go according to plan.” - Kristin Neff
"Anxiety in relationships isn't always bad — it's just the expectation of change." - Dr. John Gottman
"Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic." - Ana?s Nin

Next: Out Like a Light—We've Got the Best 130 Sleep Quotes Before You Go Catch Some Z's!

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