Apropos of this article in the New York Times:

As some make gossip out of everything, so others make much ado about everything. They are always talking big, [and] take each other seriously, making a quarrel and mystery of it. You should take very few grievances to heart, for to do so is to give yourself groundless worry. It is a topsy-turvy way of behaving to take to heart cares which you ought to throw over your shoulder. Many things that seemed important [at that time] turn out to be of no account once ignored; and others, which seem trifling, appear formidable when you pay attention to them. Things can be easily settled at the outset, but not so later on. In many cases the remedy itself is the cause of the disease; to let things be is not the least satisfactory of life’s rules.

— Baltasar Gracian, as quoted in Law 36 of The 48 Laws Of Power by Robert Greene