Norman Cousins

The essence of man is imperfection.

— Norman Cousins

History is an accumulation of error.

— Norman Cousins

Cynicism is intellectual treason.

— Norman Cousins

Do you prefer that you be right or happy?

— Norman Cousins

Pessimism is a waste of time

— Norman Cousins

Belief creates biology.

— Norman Cousins

Laughter is inner jogging.

— Norman Cousins

Laughter is a form of internal jogging.

— Norman Cousins

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

— Norman Cousins

The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope

— Norman Cousins

The control center of your life is your attitude.

— Norman Cousins

Nixon's motto was, if two wrongs don't make a right, try three.

— Norman Cousins

War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace with justice.

— Norman Cousins

Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.

— Norman Cousins

“Some people don't really know enough to make a pronouncement of doom on a human being.”

— Norman Cousins

Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions

— Norman Cousins

Nothing is more essential in the treatment of serious disease than the liberation of the patient from panic and foreboding.

— Norman Cousins

More and more, the choice for the world's people is between becoming world warriors or world citizens.

— Norman Cousins

We in America have everything we need except the most important thing of all-time to think and the habit of thought.

— Norman Cousins

Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life

— Norman Cousins

The old emphasis upon superficial differences that separate peoples must give way to education for citizenship in the human community.

— Norman Cousins

The heart of the matter is that some people like to cause injury or death to living things. And many of those…

— Norman Cousins

What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye…

— Norman Cousins

Pain is part of the body's magic. It is the way the body transmits a sign to the brain that something is…

— Norman Cousins

“The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned…

— Norman Cousins

To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species. The essence of man…

— Norman Cousins

Laughter may or may not activate the endorphins or enhance respiration, as some medical researchers contend. What seems clear, however, is that…

— Norman Cousins

The doctor knows that it is the prescription slip itself, even more than what is written on it, that is often the…

— Norman Cousins

What people most need now is to apply their conversion skills to those things that are essential for their survival. They need…

— Norman Cousins

Freedom of religion, as the Founding Fathers saw it, was not just the right to associate oneself with a certain denomination but…

— Norman Cousins

The American people are beginning to think in new ways about health and illness . . . Bernie Siegel is helping to…

— Norman Cousins

I have learned never to underestimate the capacity of the human mind and body to regenerate - even when prospects seem most…

— 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…

— Norman Cousins

“If ignorance about the nature of pain is widespread, ignorance about the way pain-killing drugs is even more so. What is not…

— Norman Cousins

“Illness is always an interaction between [mind and body]. It can begin in the mind and affect the body, or it can…

— Norman Cousins

Fortunately or otherwise we live at a time when the average individual has to know several times as much in order to…

— Norman Cousins

“I am a single cell in the body of four billion cells. The body is humankind. I am a single cell. My…

— Norman Cousins

“Time is the one thing that patients need most from their doctors--time to be heard, time to have things explained, time to…

— Norman Cousins

Humanity today is not safe in the presence of humanity. The old cannibalism has given way to anonymous action in which the…

— Norman Cousins

The justification for those actions was that we were living in a very hard, predatory, cloak-and-dagger world and that the only way…

— Norman Cousins