Social anxiety quotes (list)

In this blog, we will cover social anxiety quotes, how social anxiety quotes may be able to help you and what you should do if you have social anxiety and feel like it is getting out of control.

You may be looking for social anxiety quotes because you are trying to better understand your social anxiety.

You may be looking for social anxiety quotes because you have a friend, family, or child who has social anxiety and you want to use these social anxiety quotes to help them understand their situation much better.

Whatever your reason for looking for social anxiety quotes is, we have compiled a list of social anxiety quotes which may be able to help you understand your wellbeing better.

If you like reading, check the best fiction and spiritual books for anxiety.

Thanks for viewing these social anxiety quotes, if you have any suggestions for better social anxiety quotes or any other social anxiety quotes you want us to add then please drop us a note in the comments.

The First Batch of 5 Social anxiety quotes

“It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.” 

― Stephen Fry, Moab Is My Washpot

“It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me”

Thomas Richards, psychotherapist

“He was of an impressible nature, and lived a great deal in other people’s opinions and feelings concerning himself…” ~George Eliot, Adam Bede

“Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die.” ~Attributed to Douglas MacArthur 

“I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stunned by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, “Hi.” They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word.” 

― Augusten Burroughs

The second batch of 5 social anxiety quotes 

“  Life is made of fear. Some people eat fear soup three times a day. Some people eat fear soup all the meals there are. I eat it sometimes. When they bring me fear soup to eat, I try not to eat it, I try to send it back. But sometimes I’m too afraid to and have to eat it anyway.

Martin Amis “

“When all by myself, I can think of all kinds of clever remarks, quick comebacks to what no one said, and flashes of witty sociability with nobody. But all of this vanishes when I face someone in the flesh: I lose my intelligence, I can no longer speak, and after half an hour I just feel tired. Talking to people makes me feel like sleeping. Only my ghostly and imaginary friends, only the conversations I have in my dreams, are genuinely real and substantial.” 

― Fernando Pessoa

“ I have always felt separate… I have always felt unable to join in, to let go, to become part of the tribe… I have always sniped or joked from the sidelines… I have never, ever, lost my overwhelmingly self-conscious self-consciousness.

      It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have also been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.

      ~Stephen Fry, Moab Is My Washpot, 1997   “

“You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

You’re on your own.

And you know what you know.

You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

~Dr. Seuss

“There are two days in the week about which and upon which I never worry… Yesterday and Tomorrow.” ~Robert Jones Burdette

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The third batch of 5 social anxiety quotes

“Masquerades disclose the reality of souls. As long as no one sees who we are, we can tell the most intimate details of our life. I sometimes muse over this sketch of a story about a man afflicted by one of those personal tragedies born of extreme shyness who one day, while wearing a mask I don’t know where, told another mask all the most personal, most secret, most unthinkable things that could be told about his tragic and serene life. And since no outward detail would give him away, he having disguised even his voice, and since he didn’t take careful note of whoever had listened to him, he could enjoy the ample sensation of knowing that somewhere in the world there was someone who knew him as not even his closest and finest friend did. When he walked down the street he would ask himself if this person, or that one, or that person over there might not be the one to whom he’d once, wearing a mask, told his most private life. Thus would be born in him a new interest in each person, since each person might be his only, unknown confidant.” 

― Fernando Pessoa

“ I’m shy, but I’m not clinically shy. I don’t have social anxiety disorder or anything like that. I more have a gentle shyness. Like, I have a little trouble mingling at parties.

Samantha Bee “

“In all her intercourse with society, however, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it… She stood apart from mortal interests, yet close beside them, like a ghost that revisits the familiar fireside, and can no longer make itself seen or felt.” 

― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

“Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.” ~André Dubus

“ All too frequently, anxiety crushes not only your spirit and your potential, but your ability to take care of your mind and body. ~Jonathan Davidson and Henry Dreher, The Anxiety Book: Developing Strength in the Face of Fear “

The fourth batch of 5 social anxiety quotes

“Aloneness – that is what SM feels like to me. Isolated, alone, separated, left out as I silently stand by watching others experience life while the words freeze inside me, afraid to speak up or join in a conversation. Actually feeling the anxiety shaking inside my chest as I try to get up the courage to speak to someone or call or text a friend. SM feels like the child standing alone behind the door watching the other kids in the playground – afraid to ask, ‘may I play?’ It feels like the teenager standing silently against the wall, listening to classmates laugh and chat, invisible to everyone and wondering what it would be like to have a friend. It feels like the 50-year-old office worker, alone in her cube while others chat and laugh in the aisle, still left out. I live inside a shell, a mask that looks like me, but isn’t me. I am in here, but it is really hard to let others see. I’m so grateful for the few dear friends I have now. Most people, though, only see the shell and assume I’m aloof and uncaring because I am quiet. I feel very deeply. I feel others’ joy and pain intensely, yet they rarely know. I’m not quiet because I am uncaring. I’m silent because I’m afraid.” 

― Carl Sutton, Selective Mutism In Our Own Words: Experiences in Childhood and Adulthood

“ They need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won’t be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end. ~Jack Kerouac  “

Social anxiety quotes in images

If you are suffering from depression, anxiety, loneliness or any similar mental health issue then seeking help for it may be a good option.

Mental health issues such as depression, loneliness and anxiety can affect anyone of us.

If you are under 18 then CAMHS, an NHS run programme may just be the answer for your mental health struggles.

You should look to see if you meet the CAMHS referral criteria and then fill in the CAMHS referral form.