Top 15 Norman Cousins Quotes

Most men think they are immortal--until they get a cold, when they think they are going to die within the hour..

Laughter is a form of internal jogging. It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectations..

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

Inevitably, an individual is measured by his or her largest concerns.

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

Cynicism is intellectual treason.

[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.

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

The more serious the illness, the more important it is for you to fight back, mobilizing all your resources — spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical.

If something comes to life in others because of you, then you have made an approach to immortality.

The main failure of education is that it has not prepared people to comprehend matters concerning human destiny.

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

History is a vast early warning system.

Life is an adventure in forgiveness.

A book is like a piece of rope; it takes on meaning only in connection with the things it holds together.