Norman Cousins quotes - page 3

The marvelous pharmacy that was designed by nature and placed into our being by the universal architect produces most of the medicines we need. (Norman Cousins)
We have everything we need, in fact, except the most important thing of all - time to think and the habit of thought. View quote
Norman Cousins
Silence must be comprehended as not solely the absence of sound. It is the natural environment for serenity and contemplation. Life without silence is life without privacy. The difference between sanity and madness is the quality of our thoughts. Silence is on the side of sanity. View quote
Norman Cousins
Fortunately or otherwise we live at a time when the average individual has to know several times as much in order to keep informed as he did only thirty or forty years ago. Being "educated" today requires not only more than a superficial knowledge of the arts and sciences, but a sense of inter-relationship such as is taught in few schools. Finally, being "educated" today, in terms of the larger needs, means preparation for world citizenship; in short, education for survival. View quote
Norman Cousins
For every low there is an equal but opposite high. View quote
Norman Cousins
The heart of the matter is that some people like to cause injury or death to living things. And many of those who do not are indifferent to those who do. View quote
Norman Cousins
In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility. View quote
Norman Cousins
Why are people more appalled at what they term an unnatural form of dying than by an unnatural form of living? View quote
Norman Cousins
Reverence for life is more than solicitude or sensitivity for life. It is a sense of the whole, a capacity for inspired response, a respect for the intricate universe of individual life. It is the supreme awareness of awareness itself. View quote
Norman Cousins
All this sensory input, which begins in the brain, has its effect throughout the body. View quote
Norman Cousins
No one really knows enough to be a pessimist. (Norman Cousins)
We have learned to live in a world of mistakes and defective products as if they were necessary to life. It is time to adopt a new philosophy in America. View quote
Norman Cousins
I cannot affirm God if I fail to affirm man. Therefore, I affirm both. Without a belief in human unity I am hungry and incomplete. Human unity is the fulfillment of diversity. It is the harmony of opposites. It is a many-stranded texture, with color and depth. View quote
Norman Cousins
Ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep. View quote
Norman Cousins
Drugs are not always necessary, but belief in recovery always is. View quote
Norman Cousins
[The recovery] began, I said, when I decided that some experts don't really know enough to make a pronouncement of doom on a human being. And I said I hoped they would be careful about what they said to others; they might be believed and that could be the beginning of the end. View quote
Norman Cousins
The tragedy of life is not death but what we let die inside of us while we live. View quote
Norman Cousins
Inevitably, an individual is measured by his or her largest concerns. View quote
Norman Cousins
Most men think they are immortal--until they get a cold, when they think they are going to die within the hour. View quote
Norman Cousins
The greatest force in the human body is the natural drive of the body to heal itself - but that force in not independent of the belief system. Everything begins with belief. What we believe is the most powerful option of all. View quote
Norman Cousins
On the quality of life: #1. Realize that each human being has a built-in capacity for recuperation and repair. #2. Recognize that the quality of life is all-important. #3. Assume responsibility for the quality of your own life. #4. Nurture the regenerative and restorative forces within you. #5. Utilize laughter to create a mood in which the other positive emotions can be put to work for yourself and those around you. #6. Develop confidence and ability to feel love, hope and faith, and acquire a strong will to live. (Norman Cousins)
You are younger today than you will ever be again. Make use of it for the sake of tomorrow. View quote
Norman Cousins
Death is not the greatest tragedy in life. The greatest tragedy is what dies inside us while we live. We need not fear death. We need fear only that we may exist without having sensed something of the possibilities that lie within human existence. View quote
Norman Cousins
It is well known that panic, despair, depression, hate, rage, exasperation, frustration all produce negative biochemical changes in the body. View quote
Norman Cousins
The main trouble with despair is that it is self-fulfilling. People who fear the worst tend to invite it. Heads that are down can't scan the horizon for new openings. Bursts of energy do not spring from a spirit of defeat. Ultimately, helplessness leads to hopelessness. View quote
Norman Cousins