I am much better employed from every point of view, when I live solely for my own satisfaction, than when I begin to worry about the world. The world frightens me, and a frightened man is no good for anything.

The speaker contrasts inward-directed living with anxious preoccupation about “the world.” Gissing frames self-satisfaction not as selfishness but as a practical condition for being “better employed”—more capable of work, thought, and steadiness—than when one is distracted by social pressures and fears. The second sentence sharpens the claim: fear is disabling, making a person “no good for anything,” because it corrodes judgment and agency. Read in light of Gissing’s recurrent themes of social strain and personal vulnerability, the line suggests a defensive ethic: preserve inner equilibrium and purposeful labor by limiting exposure to the world’s intimidations and demands.