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

A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says, thinks or does is without consequences.
Norman Cousins

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

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.
Norman Cousins

Cynicism is intellectual treason.
Norman Cousins

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

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

He who keeps his cool best wins.
Norman Cousins

Hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.
Norman Cousins

History is a vast early warning system.
Norman Cousins


Hope is independent of the apparatus of logic.
Norman Cousins

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

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.
Norman Cousins

It is reasonable to expect the doctor to recognize that science may not have all the answers to problems of health and healing.
Norman Cousins

It makes little difference how many university courses or degrees a person may own. If he cannot use words to move an idea from one point to another, his education is incomplete.
Norman Cousins

Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe, so no thought or action is without its effects, present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt.
Norman Cousins

Laughter is inner jogging.
Norman Cousins

Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
Norman Cousins

Man is not imprisoned by habit. Great changes in him can be wrought by crisis - once that crisis can be recognized and understood.
Norman Cousins

My reason nourishes my faith and my faith my reason.
Norman Cousins