Worry, It's a Curse

Worry is a monster and literally swallows us at birth, and follows us like a little black cloud till we die, and some say it follows us inside our grave, and it can stop the passing over, and leave us here on earth to wonder along with the other unfinished business we may have. Unhidden it goes with us to the wedding and the funeral alike. It is at every reception, every banquet; it occupies a seat at every table.

No human intellect can estimate the unutterable havoc and ruin wrought and brought on by worry. It has forever forced genius to do the work of mediocrity; it has caused more failures, more broken hearts, more blasted hopes, than any other one cause since the dawn of the world. Have you ever heard of any good coming from worry? Does it ever help anyone to better their condition? Does it not almost always do just the opposite of impairing the health, exhausting the vitality, lessening efficiency?

What have we not done under the pressure of worry? We have been guilty of plunging right into all sorts of vice; have sold our very souls in our last effort to escape this monster we call worry. Think of the homes which it has demolished and broken up; the hopes and ambitions it has ruined; the hopes and prospects it has blighted. Think of the suicide victims of this demon.

Yet, in spite of all the tragic evils that follow in its wake, a visitor from another world would get the impression that worry is one of our dearest, most helpful friends, so closely do we hug it ourselves It is not unaccountable that we who know perfectly well that success and happiness both depend on keeping themselves in condition to get the most possible out of their energies should harbor in their minds the enemy of this very success and happiness?

It is not strange that we should form this habit, anticipate evils that will probably come, when we know that anxiety and fretting will not only rob us of peace of mind and strength with our ability to our work, but also of precious years of life. No one can utilize his normal power who dissipates a nervous energy in useless anxiety. Nothing will sap one's vitality and blight ones ambition or detract from one's real power in the world more than the worrying habit.