25 Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Quotes From the Popular Self-Help Book

If you want to learn to enjoy life more, these Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff quotes are for you!

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff is a self-help book by Richard Carlson, PH.D. that helps you learn to keep the small stuff from running your life.

The book’s title is Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…and It’s All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life.

The book was first published in 1997, and the teachings are still relevant today.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff reveals gentle and supportive suggestions on how to make your life calmer and stress-free.

Dr. Carlson took his education and experience as a psychologist to spread the message he teaches in his book across such platforms as The Today Show, Oprah, Fox, and many more before his untimely death in 2006.

Look at these Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff quotes to learn more about this powerful book.

You will also enjoy our article on Atomic Habits quotes.

Memorable Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Quotes

These quick quotes are easy to remember and can be life-changing.

1. “Choose to be kind over being right, and you’ll be right every time.” — Richard Carlson

2. “If we would just slow down, happiness would catch up to us.” — Richard Carlson

3. “Being listened to and heard is one of the greatest desires of the human heart.” — Richard Carlson

4. “Thinking of someone to love each day keeps your resentment away!” — Richard Carlson

5. “Unhappiness is the result of struggling against the natural flow of experience.” — Richard Carlson

6. “Ask yourself the question, ‘Will this matter a year from now?’” — Richard Carlson

7. “As long as you think more is better, you’ll never be satisfied.” — Richard Carlson

8. “Thinking of someone to love each day keeps your resentment away!” — Richard Carlson

9. “We live our lives as if they were one big emergency! We often rush around looking busy, trying to solve problems, but in reality, we are often compounding them.” — Richard Carlson

10. “Imagining yourself at your own funeral allows you to look back at your life while you still have the chance to make some important changes.” — Richard Carlson

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Quotes to Live By

These quotes from the book are helpful words of wisdom to apply to your life.

11. “When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.” — Richard Carlson

12. “An argument that happened while you were walking out the door on your way to work is no longer an actual argument; it’s a thought in your mind.” — Richard Carlson

13. “When you’re in an ill mood, learn to pass it off as simply that: an unavoidable human condition that will pass with time if you leave it alone. A low mood is not the time to analyze your life.” — Richard Carlson

14. “We forget that life isn’t as bad as we’re making it out to be. We also forget that when we’re blowing things out of proportion, we are the ones doing the blowing.” — Richard Carlson

15. “One of the mistakes many of us make is that we feel sorry for ourselves or for others, thinking that life should be fair or that someday it will be. It’s not and it won’t.” — Richard Carlson

16. “If you’re not going to talk about something during the last hour of your life, then don’t make it a top priority during your lifetime.” — Richard Carlson

17. “We tend to believe that if we were somewhere else – on vacation, with another partner, in a different career, a different home, a different circumstance – somehow we would be happier and more content. We wouldn’t!” — Richard Carlson

18. “As you put more emphasis on being a loving person, which is something you can control – and less emphasis on receiving love, which is something you can’t control – you’ll find that you have plenty of love in your life.” — Richard Carlson

Check out our collection of Cookie Monster quotes if you enjoy this article.

Wise Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Quotes

These words are worth remembering as you navigate life.

19. “It’s the recognition that other people’s problems, their pain, and frustrations, are every bit as real as our own – often far worse.” — Richard Carlson

20. “Your heart, the compassionate part of you, knows that it’s impossible to feel better at the expense of someone else.” — Richard Carlson

21. “The first step in becoming a more peaceful person is to have the humility to admit that, in most cases, you’re creating your own emergencies..” — Richard Carlson

22. “As you focus more on becoming more peaceful with where you are, rather than focusing on where you would rather be, you begin to find peace right now, in the present.” — Richard Carlson

23. “True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice, and to learn.” — Richard Carlson

24. “Effective listening is more than simply avoiding the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It’s being content to listen to the entire thought of someone rather than waiting impatiently for your chance to respond.” — Richard Carlson

25. “The important question in terms of becoming more peaceful isn’t whether or not you’re going to have negative thoughts – you are – it’s what you choose to do with the ones that you have.” — Richard Carlson

What Are Some of the Things You Will Learn From the Book?

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff will teach you to live a happier and healthier life through its teachings.

Specifically, you will learn how to “Live in the moment,” “Lower your tolerance to stress,” “Trust your intuitions,” and “Live each day as if it were your last.”

Please share these Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff quotes with your family and friends and post any comments about the book in the comment section below.