Norman Cousins

The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope. That is why the patient's hopes are the physician's secret weapon. They are the hidden ingredients in any prescription.

History is a vast early warning system.

Life is an adventure in forgiveness.

Capitalism in the United States has undergone profound modification not just under the New Deal but through a consensus that continued to grow after the New Deal. Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.

The most costly disease is not cancer or coronaries. The most costly disease is boredom - costly for both individual and society.

Death is not the enemy living in constant fear of it is.

Never deny a diagnosis but do deny the negative verdict that may go with it.

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.

A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.

The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or where one's devotion to the bound book is expressed in ritual. 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._ Cited in ALA Bulletin, Oct. 1954, p.475

Each patient carries his own doctor inside him.

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.