Top 25 Hans Selye Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one.”

— Hans Selye

Featured in: Positive Quotes, Happiness Quotes, Attitude Quotes, Positive Life Quotes, Stress Quotes

2. “It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.”

— Hans Selye

Featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Psychology Quotes, Wellness Quotes, Stress Quotes, Anxiety Quotes

3. “To be totally without stress is to be dead.”

— Hans Selye

Featured in: Stress Quotes

4. “Stress is the spice of life.”

— Hans Selye

5. “Complete freedom from stress is death.”

— Hans Selye

6. “To make a great dream come true, you must first have a great dream.”

— Hans Selye

Featured in: Ambition Quotes

7. “Stress, in addition to being itself, was also the cause of itself, and the result of itself.”

— Hans Selye

8. “As much as we thirst for approval we dread condemnation.”

— Hans Selye

9. “Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.”

— Hans Selye

10. “The healthiest of all human emotions is gratitude.”

— Hans Selye

11. “Nothing erases unpleasant thoughts more effectively than conscious concentration on pleasant ones.”

— Hans Selye

Featured in: Breakup Quotes

12. “Stress is not necessarily something bad it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental.”

— Hans Selye

13. “Gratitude is the most important of all human emotions.”

— Hans Selye

14. “Leaders are leaders only as long as they have the respect and loyalty of their followers.”

— Hans Selye

15. “Mental tensions, frustrations, insecurity, aimlessness are among the most damaging stressors, and psychosomatic studies have shown how often they cause migraine headache, peptic ulcers, heart attacks, hypertension, mental disease, suicide, or just hopeless unhappiness.”

— Hans Selye

16. “Man should not try to avoid stress any more than he would shun food, love or exercise.”

— Hans Selye

17. “My advice to any young person at the beginning of their career is to try to look for the mere outlines of big things with their fresh, untrained and unprejudiced mind.”

— Hans Selye

Featured in: Inspirational Career Quotes

18. “Who would enjoy a life of no runs, no hits, no errors?”

— Hans Selye

19. “To remain healthy a man must have some goal, some purpose in life that he can respect and be proud to work for.”

— Hans Selye

20. “If you want to live a long life, focus on making contributions .”

— Hans Selye

21. “Even after the greatest defeats, the depressing thought of being a failure is best combated by taking stock of all your past achievements.”

— Hans Selye

22. “Gratitude conserves the vital energies of a person more than any other attitude tested.”

— Hans Selye

23. “The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement.”

— Hans Selye

24. “The builder of the best racing car is not necessarily its best driver.”

— Hans Selye

25. “The element of chance in basic research is overrated. Chance is a lady who smiles only upon those few who know how to make her smile.”

— Hans Selye

26. “Unlock your natural drives by doing what you enjoy.”

— Hans Selye

27. “Almost no germ is unconditionally dangerous to man; its disease-producing ability depends upon the body’s resistance.”

— Hans Selye

28. “Indeed, not all attacks-especially the bitter and ridiculing kind leveled at Darwin-are offered in good faith, but for practical purposes it is good policy to assume that they are.”

— Hans Selye