Norman Cousins Quotes - Page 4

The essence of man is imperfection.

The main trouble with despair is that it is self-fulfilling.

For every low there is an equal but opposite high.

No one really knows enough to be a pessimist.

Words have to be crafted, not sprayed. They need to be fitted together with infinite care.

The physician knows that his little black bag can carry him only so far and that the body's own healing system is the main resource.

The possibility of war increases in direct proportion to the effectiveness of the instruments of war.

I have learned never to underestimate the capacity of the human mind and body to regenerate - even when prospects seem most wretched. The life force may be the least understood force on earth.

Humanity today is not safe in the presence of humanity. The old cannibalism has given way to anonymous action in which the killer and the killed do not know each other, and in which,indeed, the very fact of mass death has the effect of making mass killing less reprehensible than the death of a single individual. In short, we have evolved in every respect except our ability to protect ourselves against human intelligence. Our knowledge is vast but does not embrace the workings of peace.

Intelligence and the spirit of adventure can be combined to create new energies, and out of these energies may come exciting and rewarding new prospects.

What people most need now is to apply their conversion skills to those things that are essential for their survival. They need to convert facts into logic, free will into purpose, conscience into decision. They need to convert historical experience into a design for a sane world.

The present mode of life on earth is madness, which is nontheless lethal for being legal. Rational existence is possible, but it calls for a world consciousness and a world design. People who develop the habit of thinking of themselves as world citizens are fulfilling the first requirement of sanity in our time.

The one thing I have learned about editing over the years is that you have to edit and publish out of your own tastes, enthusiasms, and concerns, and not out of notions or guesswork about what other people might like to read.

All men - whether they go by the name of Americans or Russians or Chinese or British or Malayans or Indians or Africans - have obligations to one another that transcend their obligations to their sovereign societies.

The life-force may be the least understood force on earth.

The doctor knows that it is the prescription slip itself, even more than what is written on it, that is often the vital ingredient for enabling a patient to get rid of whatever is ailing him.

In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.

Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.

Your heaviest artillery will be your will to live. Keep that big gun going.

If the United Nations is to survive, those who represent it must bolster it; those who advocate it must submit to it; and those who believe in it must fight for it.

My reason nourishes my faith and my faith my reason.

Where is the indignation about the fact that the US and USSR have thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world?

Why are people more appalled at what they term an unnatural form of dying than by an unnatural form of living?

Do you prefer that you be right or happy?

Nature has not been lavish in her endowments, but each person has his or her own potential in terms of achievement and service. The awareness of that potential is the discovery of purpose; the fulfillment of that potential is the discovery of strength.