Panic Quotes

“With the amount of diazepam in me, I should have been content to lie back and let events unfold as they may, and my curiosity did for a moment consider it, but then a punch of panic reminded me that people far saner than I were murdered for less in more conspicuous locations.”
― Tanya Thompson, Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade

“To take a breath of water: does the thought panic or excite you?”
― Maggie Nelson, Bluets

“In times of stress and danger such as come about as the result of an epidemic, many tragic and cruel phases of human nature are brought out, as well as many brave and unselfish ones.”
― William Crawford Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama

“Every danger loses some of its terror once its causes are understood.”
― Konrad Lorenz, Civilized man's eight deadly sins

“As he pushed her by the shoulder toward the gate, the rising howl commenced. Nightmares had beome a science. Someone, a mere human, had taken the time to dream up this satanic howling. And what success! It was the sound of panic itself, mounting and straining toward the extinction they all knew, individually, to be theirs. It was a sound you were obliged to take personally.”
― Ian McEwan, Atonement

“I always thought a shipwreck was a well-organized affair, but I've learned the devil a lot in the last five minutes.”
― Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

“[Patricia Highsmith] was overwhelmed by sensory stimulation - there were too many people and too much noise and she just could not handle the supermarket. She continually jumped, afraid that someone might recognise or touch her. She could not make the simplest of decisions - which type of bread did she want, or what kind of salami? I tried to do the shopping as quickly as possible, but at the check-out she started to panic. She took out her wallet, knocked off her glasses, dropped the money on the floor, stuff was going all over the place.”
― Andrew Wilson, Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι

“The words kept coming and he could not stop them, not while Callie was standing there so indecipherably, and so he was going to keep talking until he used up all the words there were and then no one would be able to talk to anyone else anymore and then all anyone would have left were one another's unintelligible faces, and maybe some weird gesturing, too, and it would be all Oscar's fault.”
― Anne Ursu, The Real Boy

“In movies, people pretend to be sick to get their jailers to let them out,” Aaron told them. “Maybe one of us could try throwing up — or frothing from the mouth.”
“Like we’re rabid?” Call asked.
“We don’t have time to argue,” Tamara said, reaching into her satchel, clearly completely panicked, and coming out with a little bottle of clear liquid. “I have hand soap. Quick, Jasper, drink it. You’ll definitely froth.”
“I am not drinking that,” Jasper said. “I am a deWinter. We do not froth.”
― Cassandra Clare and Holly Black

“Panic was the death of thought.”
― Leon Garfield, The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris

“...panic is a synonym for being; in its delays, in its swerving and rushing syntax, its frantic lists and questions, it fends off time and loss. Its opposite is oblivion: not the tranquil oblivion of sleep but the threatening oblivions of sex and death.”
― Louise Glück

“Tommy and Scootie locked eyes. Only minutes ago, he wouldn't have believed that he could ever have felt such a kinship with the Labrador as he felt now.”
― Dean Koontz, Tick Tock

“How long before the parts of my body realized, independently, that something was wrong and arrived, severally, at panic? Panic is a still thing. I have felt it before: each limb nerve organ coming into extreme alert unrelated to any other, ready for action, but who knows what action, as there is no action that could help here.”
― Joanna Walsh, Vertigo

“I would suggest that the prisons I incessantly create are not designed to lock me in, rather they are designed to lock the world out. And the oddity is that either way, I am a prisoner who has sentenced himself to a prison within which I do not belong.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Panic might feel like a bad thing, but in actual fact, it contains thousands of little splinters of hope. When panic is gone, it usually means that those splinters are gone too.”
― Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, The Apple Tart of Hope

“Maybe it wasn’t rational, but she didn’t like the idea of Leo invading her little world. Yesterday, Brooklyn had belonged to her. The Long Island ’burbs where she’d grown up had felt far away from the brick streets and renovated factory spaces of Brooklyn. In this job, she’d felt truly independent, putting down her own fragile roots in a new place.

Fast forward twenty-four hours, and her daddy had joined the workplace and her ex-boyfriend had shown up to remind her of all that she’d lost. Really, a girl could be forgiven for feeling slightly hysterical.

Not that there was any time to panic.”
― Sarina Bowen, Rookie Move

“When you face any difficulty, do not panic but pray.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

“A phobia is an excessive or unreasonable fear of an object, situation or place. Phobias are quite common and often take root in childhood for no apparent reason. Other times they spring from traumatic events or develop from an attempt to make sense of unexpected and intense feelings of anxiety or panic.

Simple phobias are fears of specific things such as insects, infections, or even flying. Agoraphobia is a fear of being in places where one feels trapped or unable to get help, such as in crowds, on a bus or in a car, or standing in a line. It is basically an anxiety that ignites from being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing). A social phobia is a marked fear of social or performance situations.

When the phobic person actually encounters, or even anticipates, being in the presence of the feared object or situation, immediate anxiety can be triggered. The physical symptoms of anxiety may include shortness of breath, sweating, a racing heart, chest or abdominal discomfort, trembling, and similar reactions. The emotional component involves an intense fear and may include feelings of losing control, embarrassing oneself, or passing out.

Most people who experience phobias try to escape or avoid the feared situation wherever possible. This may be fairly easy if the feared object is rarely encountered (such as snakes) and avoidance will not greatly restrict the person’s life. At other times, avoiding the feared situation (in the case of agoraphobia, social phobia) is not easily done. After all, we live in a world filled with people and places. Having a fear of such things can limit anyone’s life significantly, and trying to escape or avoid a feared object or situation because of feelings of fear about that object or situation can escalate and make the feelings of dread and terror even more pronounced.

In some situations of phobias, the person may have specific thoughts that contribute some threat to the feared situation. This is particularly true for social phobia, in which there is often a fear of being negatively evaluated by others, and for agoraphobia, in which there may be a fear of passing out or dying with no one around to help, and of having a panic attack where one fears making a fool of oneself in the presence of other people.

Upon recognizing their problem for what it is, men should take heart in knowing that eighty percent of people who seek help can experience improvement of symptoms or, in male-speak, the illness can be “fixed.”
― Sahar Abdulaziz, But You LOOK Just Fine: Unmasking Depression, Anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder and Seasonal Affective Disorder

“I dreamt I was a purple butterfly floating in the summer breeze. Then I woke up in a field of tall grass in the dirt.”
Her features crumpled and she threw her arms around me. “Oh, Cora, that must have been awful. How did you manage to get back here? You didn’t walk back naked, I hope. We don’t need the attention.”
― Andrea Heltsley, Dissolve

“She was young and scared, and hadn't realized there was time to spare.”
― David Halberstam, Firehouse

“Leaders don't fall in gutters of fear; only negative ideas flow in that canal. There, you will see filthy things like doubts and disbelief.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Ladder

“She stared at the surface of her coffee, swirling in her mug. Tiny universes rose and fell in the liquid depths as the moment dragged out into uncomfortable territory. Oh god! her mind screamed. (God didn't answer.)”
― Danika Stone, All the Feels

“You shouldn't panic so much," Siris said. "You'll never be a good thief if you panic.”
― Sean F. Hogan, Painting Angels

“It is better to pray than panic.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Panic reared up through me, hot and blazing and blurry, and that was it.”
― Kendall Kulper, Salt & Storm

“Oh, my, god, we are in a killing room. This is just like an episode of Dexter! They are going to murder us!” Mia exclaimed as she started to cry.”
― Andrea Heltsley, Dissolve

“At that moment my shyness and anxiety all flooded back and I took a few steps back, and then sank to the ground; crouching, overwhelmed, covering my face. ‘What will he think? What if he already hates me? Maybe I was wrong in the first place? Maybe he didn’t like me at all.’ No matter how much I tried, I wasn’t able to produce a single positive thought to counter my panic. I wasn’t able to take a deep breath and relax. This day had been too eventful. I began to shake furiously, afraid of what was to come. ‘He hates me! He hates me!’ I thought over and over. Hot tears began to fall down my cheeks and I squeezed my eyes trying to stop them. My breathing quickened. What was I doing? I had said what I wanted, proudly, trying to be something to him but here I was: a total mess.

‘What kind of a confession ends in a panic attack? GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!’ I thought furiously, my efforts rewarded with futility. The world started to spin, my mouth becoming numb for reasons I couldn’t understand, almost as if to prevent me from panicking aloud. As if I had the friggin’ courage.”
― Anja Owona Okoa, What if we're faeries?

“Elise ignored her complaints and eased her deeper into the water, until it was almost to her chest. It was getting more difficult for her to keep her feet on the smooth rocks, and panic began to swell.
She took in a deep breath of air, frightened that she might go under at any moment.
“Wheest, lass,”Elise told her. “Ye’ll be fine as long as ye do no’panic. Panic is what kills a person.”
“Are ye sure it be not lungs filled with water that does a person in?”Laurin snapped.”
― Suzan Tisdale, Isle of the Blessed

“One editor during the Civil War got a grievous message to meet his brothers corpse, only to find out that the telegraph operator had garbled the message to meet his living brother's CORPS.”
― Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion

“Do not panic but pray when you face any problem.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita