Norman Cousins

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

He who keeps his cool best wins.

People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.

Respect for the fragility and importance of an individual life is still the mark of an educated man.

Hope is independent of the apparatus of logic.

The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.

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

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

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.

Since the human body tends to move in the direction of its expectations-plus or minus-it is important to know that attitudes of confidence and determination are no less a part of the treatment program than medical science and technology.

The essence of man is imperfection.

To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species.

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

It is nonsense to say there is not enough time to be fully informed. ... Time given to thought is the greatest timesaver of all.

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

Don't defy the diagnosis try to defy the verdict.

The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.

It has always seemed to me that hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.