Norman Cousins Quotes
What a man really says when he says that someone else can be persuaded by force, is that he himself is incapable of more rational means of communication.
The poet reminds men of their uniqueness and it is not necessary to possess the ultimate definition of this uniqueness. Even to speculate is a gain.
The only security for the American people today, or for any people, is to be found through the control of force rather than the use of force.
The real wealth, not only of America, but of the world, is in the resources of the ground we stand on, and in the resources of the humankind.
Unobstructed access to facts can produce unlimited good only if it is matched by the desire and ability to find out what they mean and where they lead.
Laughter may or may not activate the endorphins or enhance respiration, as some medical researchers contend. What seems clear, however, is that laughter is an antidote to apprehension and panic.
The way a book is read- which is to say, the qualities a reader brings to a book- can have as much to do with its worth as anything the author puts into it.
People who develop the habit of thinking of themselves as world citizens are fulfilling the first requirement of sanity in our time.
The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it withing his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.
A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life.
The most costly disease is not cancer or coronaries. The most costly disease is boredom - costly for both individual and society.
It has always seemed to me that hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.
Nothing is more essential in the treatment of serious disease than the liberation of the patient from panic and forboding.
It is nonsense to say there is not enough time to be fully informed. ... Time given to thought is the greatest timesaver of all.
A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says thinks or does is without consequences.