Norman Cousins
Norman Cousins
Norman Cousinswas an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth24 June 1915
CountryUnited States of America
citizens develop fulfilling habit people sanity themselves thinking time
People who develop the habit of thinking of themselves as world citizens are fulfilling the first requirement of sanity in our time
baseball thinking games
At a Dodger baseball game in Los Angeles, I asked Will Durant if he was ninety-four or ninety-five. "Ninety-four," he said. "You don't think I'd be doing anything as foolish as this if I were ninety-five, do you?"
time thinking america
We in America have everything we need except the most important thing of all-time to think and the habit of thought.
thinking people design
The present mode of life on earth is madness, which is nontheless lethal for being legal. Rational existence is possible, but it calls for a world consciousness and a world design. People who develop the habit of thinking of themselves as world citizens are fulfilling the first requirement of sanity in our time.
thinking people way
The American people are beginning to think in new ways about health and illness . . . Bernie Siegel is helping to define and open up these new frontiers. In this sense he is in the best medical tradition.
thinking given
Time given to thought is the greatest time saver of all.
fashion thinking dwelling
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.
author book brings puts qualities reader worth
The way a book is read which is to say, the qualities a reader brings to a book can have as much to do with its worth as anything the author puts into it.
dealt free game hand
Free will and determinism are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism. The way you play your hand is free will.
account edges fails field outer pessimism possibilities vision
Pessimism operates in a narrowed field of vision that fails to take into account the possibilities at the outer edges of experience.
changes crisis great imprisoned man recognized wrought
Man is not imprisoned by habit. Great changes in him can be wrought by crisis -- once that crisis can be recognized and understood.
age answers carry celestial craving days difficult effect essential eyes feels giant gives glued greater infinity inner leads mechanisms mind missions necessary object outer placebo satisfies shape since size spend tangible telescope ultimately uncharted visible wondrous
Like a celestial chaperon, the placebo leads us through the uncharted passageways of mind and gives us a greater sense of infinity than if we were to spend all our days with our eyes hypnotically glued to the giant telescope at Mt. Palomar. What we see ultimately is that the placebo isn't really necessary and that the mind can carry out its difficult and wondrous missions unprompted by little pills. The placebo is only a tangible object made essential in an age that feels uncomfortable with intangibles, an age that prefers to think that every inner effect must have an outer cause. Since it has size and shape and can be hand-held, the placebo satisfies the contemporary craving for visible mechanisms and visible answers . The placebo, then, is an emissary between the will to live and the body.
differences serenity silence
Silence must be comprehended as not solely the absence of sound. It is the natural environment for serenity and contemplation. Life without silence is life without privacy. The difference between sanity and madness is the quality of our thoughts. Silence is on the side of sanity.
book ideas library
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 one 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.