"If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret"
About this Quote
The subtext is defensive and autobiographical. Coming from an actor who’s spoken publicly about depression, fame’s hollowness, and the crash after a laugh, the quote reads less like a calm guru and more like someone describing a coping mechanism that works because the alternatives are brutal. Anxiety and rumination are cast as narratives we tell ourselves to feel control: forecasting catastrophe, replaying mistakes, rehearsing shame. “In the moment” becomes a refusal to feed those scripts.
It also reflects a cultural moment where “mindfulness” got rebranded from countercultural practice to workplace perk, then back again into something grittier: an emergency brake for an overstimulated brain. Carrey’s phrasing is blunt, binary, almost stand-up in its setup-punch structure. He doesn’t promise enlightenment; he promises relief. Presence isn’t framed as transcendence, but triage.
Quote Details
| Topic | Live in the Moment |
|---|---|
| Source | Jim Carrey — commencement address, Maharishi University of Management, 2014 (line appears in speech transcript) |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Carrey, Jim. (2026, January 15). If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-arent-in-the-moment-you-are-either-looking-33276/
Chicago Style
Carrey, Jim. "If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-arent-in-the-moment-you-are-either-looking-33276/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-arent-in-the-moment-you-are-either-looking-33276/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.





