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I've Learned That Next To The Atomic Bomb, The Greatest Danger Is Defeatism, Despair, And Inadequate Awareness Of What Human Beings Possess. I Feel That Any Problem That Can Be Defined Is Capable Of Being Resolved. Out Of This Has Come My Conviction That No Person Knows Enough To Be A Pessimist.

-Norman Cousins

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I've Learned That Next

Norman Cousins

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I've Learned That Next To The Atomic Bomb, The Greatest Danger Is Defeatism, Despair, And Inadequate Awareness Of What Human Beings Possess. I Feel That Any Problem That Can Be Defined Is Capable Of Being Resolved. Out Of This Has Come My Conviction That No Person Knows Enough To Be A Pessimist.

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I Have Learned Never To Underestimate The Capacity Of The Human Mind And Body To Regenerate - Even When Prospects Seem Most Wretched. The Life Force May Be The Least Understood Force On Earth.

Laughter Is A Form Of Internal Jogging. It Moves Your Internal Organs Around. It Enhances Respiration. It Is An Igniter Of Great Expectations.

All This Sensory Input, Which Begins In The Brain, Has Its Effect Throughout The Body.

A Book Is Like A Piece Of Rope; It Takes On Meaning Only In Connection With The Things It Holds Together.

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.

More And More, The Choice For The World's People Is Between Becoming World Warriors Or World Citizens.

The Essence Of Man Is Imperfection. Failure Is Simply A Price We Pay To Achieve Success. If We Learn To Embrace That New Definition Of Failure, Then We Are Free To Start Moving Ahead - And Failing Forward.

Laughter Is Inner Jogging.

Cynicism Is Intellectual Treason.

I've Learned That Next To The Atomic Bomb, The Greatest Danger Is Defeatism, Despair, And Inadequate Awareness Of What Human Beings Possess. I Feel That Any Problem That Can Be Defined Is Capable Of Being Resolved. Out Of This Has Come My Conviction That No Person Knows Enough To Be A Pessimist.

Education Fails Unless The Three R's At One End Of The School Spectrum Lead Ultimately To The Four P's At The Other-preparati On For Earning, Preparation For Living, Preparation For Understanding, Preparation For Participation In The Problems Involved In The Making Of A Better World.

Your Heaviest Artillery Will Be Your Will To Live. Keep That Big Gun Going.

Wisdom Consists Of The Anticipation Of Consequences.

Pain Is Part Of The Body's Magic. It Is The Way The Body Transmits A Sign To The Brain That Something Is Wrong.

The Most Costly Disease Is Boredom Costly For Both Individual And Society.

The Message From The Moon Which We Have Flashed To The Far Corners Of This Planet Is That No Problem Need Any Longer Be Considered Insoluble.

I Cannot Affirm God If I Fail To Affirm Man. Therefore, I Affirm Both. Without A Belief In Human Unity I Am Hungry And Incomplete. Human Unity Is The Fulfillment Of Diversity. It Is The Harmony Of Opposites. It Is A Many-stranded Texture, With Color And Depth.

If There Is A Conflict Between The Easy Drift Of Prosperity And The Ordeal Of Peace, The Ordeal Of Peace Comes First.

If Something Comes To Life In Others Because Of You, Then You Have Made An Approach To Immortality.

Government In The U.s. Today Is A Senior Partner In Every Business In The Country.

Each Patient Carries His Own Doctor Inside Him.

Nothing Is More Powerful Than An Individual Acting Out Their Conscience, Thus Helping Bring The Collective Conscience To Life.

The Starting Point For A Better World Is The Belief That It Is Possible.

The Greatest Force In The Human Body Is The Natural Drive Of The Body To Heal Itself - But That Force In Not Independent Of The Belief System. Everything Begins With Belief. What We Believe Is The Most Powerful Option Of All.

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?"

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.

We Are Becoming A Nation Of Sissies And Hypochondriacs, A Self Medicating Society Easily Intimidated By Pain And Prone To Panic. We Understand Almost Nothing About The Essential Robustness Of The Human Body Or Its Ability To Meet The Challenge Of Illness.

War Is An Invention Of The Human Mind. The Human Mind Can Invent Peace With Justice.

Nixon's Motto Was, If Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right, Try Three.

No One Really Knows Enough To Be A Pessimist.

The Need Is Not To Amputate The Ego ... But To Transcend It.

The Conquest Of War And The Pursuit Of Social Justice... Must Become Our Grand Preoccupation And Magnificent Obsession.

The Marvelous Pharmacy That Was Designed By Nature And Placed Into Our Being By The Universal Architect Produces Most Of The Medicines We Need.

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.

People Are Never More Insecure Than When They Become Obsessed With Their Fears At The Expense Of Their Dreams.

Belief Creates Biology.

Do You Prefer That You Be Right Or Happy?

The Only Security For The American People Today, Or For Any People, Is To Be Found Through The Control Of Force Rather Than The Use Of Force.

The Doctor Knows That It Is The Prescription Slip Itself, Even More Than What Is Written On It, That Is Often The Vital Ingredient For Enabling A Patient To Get Rid Of Whatever Is Ailing Him.

Laughter Serves As A Blocking Agent. Like A Bullet-proof Vest, It May Help Protect You Against The Ravages Of Negative Emotions That Can Assault You In Disease.

The Capacity For Hope Is The Most Significant Fact Of Life.

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.

Nothing Is More Essential In The Treatment Of Serious Disease Than The Liberation Of The Patient From Panic And Foreboding.

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.

For Every Low There Is An Equal But Opposite High.

Nature Has Not Been Lavish In Her Endowments, But Each Person Has His Or Her Own Potential In Terms Of Achievement And Service. The Awareness Of That Potential Is The Discovery Of Purpose; The Fulfillment Of That Potential Is The Discovery Of Strength.

The Tragedy Of Life Is In What Dies Inside A Man While He Lives - The Death Of Genuine Feeling, The Death Of Inspired Response, The Awareness That Makes It Possible To Feel The Pain Or The Glory Of Other Men In Yourself.

An Adequate Share Of Humor And Laughter Represents An Essential Part Of The Diet Of The Healthy Person.

The Great Challenge Of The '90s... Is To Salvage And Improve The Un And To Develop It Into An Agency Capable Of Meeting The Wide Range Of Serious Problems That Are Inherent In A World That Has Become A Single Geographic Unit.

Governments Are Not Built To Perceive Large Truths. Only People Can Perceive Great Truths. Governments Specialize In Small And Intermediate Truths. They Have To Be Instructed By Their People In Great Truths.

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.

The Main Trouble With Despair Is That It Is Self-fulfilling. People Who Fear The Worst Tend To Invite It. Heads That Are Down Can't Scan The Horizon For New Openings. Bursts Of Energy Do Not Spring From A Spirit Of Defeat. Ultimately, Helplessness Leads To Hopelessness.

The Physician Knows That His Little Black Bag Can Carry Him Only So Far And That The Body's Own Healing System Is The Main Resource.

Humanity Today Is Not Safe In The Presence Of Humanity. The Old Cannibalism Has Given Way To Anonymous Action In Which The Killer And The Killed Do Not Know Each Other, And In Which,indeed, The Very Fact Of Mass Death Has The Effect Of Making Mass Killing Less Reprehensible Than The Death Of A Single Individual. In Short, We Have Evolved In Every Respect Except Our Ability To Protect Ourselves Against Human Intelligence. Our Knowledge Is Vast But Does Not Embrace The Workings Of Peace.

Fortunately Or Otherwise We Live At A Time When The Average Individual Has To Know Several Times As Much In Order To Keep Informed As He Did Only Thirty Or Forty Years Ago. Being "educated" Today Requires Not Only More Than A Superficial Knowledge Of The Arts And Sciences, But A Sense Of Inter-relationship Such As Is Taught In Few Schools. Finally, Being "educated" Today, In Terms Of The Larger Needs, Means Preparation For World Citizenship; In Short, Education For Survival.

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.

He Who Keeps His Cool Best Wins.

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.

Laughter Is A Powerful Way To Tap Positive Emotions

The Growth Of The Human Mind Is Still High Adventure, In Many Ways The Highest Adventure On Earth.

Second Only To Freedom, Learning Is The Most Precious Option On Earth.

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.

The Essence Of Man Is Imperfection.

The Need Is To Recognize That The Patient Is The Healer, Not The Doctor.

We Have Everything We Need, In Fact, Except The Most Important Thing Of All — Time To Think And The Habit Of Thought.

Unobstructed Access To Facts Can Produce Unlimited Good Only If It Is Matched By The Desire And Ability To Find Out What They Mean And Where They Lead.

Drugs Are Not Always Necessary. Belief In Recovery Always Is.

Where Is The Indignation About The Fact That The Us And Ussr Have Thirty Thousand Pounds Of Destructive Force For Every Human Being In The World?

To Talk About The Need For Perfection In Man Is To Talk About The Need For Another Species.

Words Have To Be Crafted, Not Sprayed. They Need To Be Fitted Together With Infinite Care.

Life Is An Adventure In Forgiveness.

The Justification For Those Actions Was That We Were Living In A Very Hard, Predatory, Cloak-and-dagger World And That The Only Way To Deal With A Totalitarian Enemy Was To Intimidate Him. The Trouble With This Theory Was That While We Live In A World Of Plot And Counterplot, We Also Live In A World Of Cause And Effect. Whatever The Cause For The Decision To Legitimize And Regularize Deceit Abroad, The Inevitable Effect Was The Practice Of Deceit At Home.

Death Is Not The Greatest Tragedy In Life. The Greatest Tragedy Is What Dies Inside Us While We Live. We Need Not Fear Death. We Need Fear Only That We May Exist Without Having Sensed Something Of The Possibilities That Lie Within Human Existence.

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.

We Have Learned To Live In A World Of Mistakes And Defective Products As If They Were Necessary To Life. It Is Time To Adopt A New Philosophy In America.

Death Is Not The Enemy; Living In Constant Fear Of It Is.

Optimism Doesn't Wait On Facts. It Deals With Prospects. Pessimism Is A Waste Of Time.

You Are Younger Today Than You Will Ever Be Again. Make Use Of It For The Sake Of Tomorrow.

To Be Able To Rise From The Earth; To Be Able, From A Station In Outer Space, To See The Relationship Of The Planet Earth To Other Planets; To Be Able To Contemplate The Billions Of Factors In Precise And Beautiful Combination That Make Human Existence Possible; To Be Able To Dwell On An Encounter Of The Human Brain And Spirit With The Universe

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.

What Was Significant About The Laughter . . . Was Not Just The Fact That It Provides Internal Exercise For A Person . . . Form Of Jogging For The Innards, But That It Creates A Mood In Which The Other Positive Emotions Can Be Put To Work, Too.

Respect For The Fragility And Importance Of An Individual Life Is Still The Mark Of An Educated Man.

What A Man Really Says When He Says That Someone Else Can Be Persuaded By Force, Is That He Himself Is Incapable Of More Rational Means Of Communication.

History Is A Vast Early Warning System.

Freedom Of Religion, As The Founding Fathers Saw It, Was Not Just The Right To Associate Oneself With A Certain Denomination But The Right To Disassociate Without Penalty. Belief Or Nonbelief Was A Matter Of Individual Choice - A Right Underwritten In The Basic Charter Of The Nation's Liberties.

Individual Choice

The Possibility Of War Increases In Direct Proportion To The Effectiveness Of The Instruments Of War.

Pessimism Is A Waste Of Time.

Infinity Converts The Possible Into The Inevitable.

History Is An Accumulation Of Error.

Of All The Gifts Bestowed By Nature On Human Beings, Hearty Laughter Must Be Close To The Top.

We Are Wide-eyed In Contemplating The Possibility That Life May Exist Elsewhere In The Universe, But We Wear Blinders When Contemplating The Possibilities Of Life On Earth.

Hearty Laughter Is A Good Way To Jog Internally Without Having To Go Outdoors.

The Main Trouble With Despair Is That It Is Self-fulfilling.

All Men - Whether They Go By The Name Of Americans Or Russians Or Chinese Or British Or Malayans Or Indians Or Africans - Have Obligations To One Another That Transcend Their Obligations To Their Sovereign Societies.

Why Are People More Appalled At What They Term An Unnatural Form Of Dying Than By An Unnatural Form Of Living?

My Reason Nourishes My Faith And My Faith My Reason.

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.

The Main Failure Of Education Is That It Has Not Prepared People To Comprehend Matters Concerning Human Destiny.

Reverence For Life Is More Than Solicitude Or Sensitivity For Life. It Is A Sense Of The Whole, A Capacity For Inspired Response, A Respect For The Intricate Universe Of Individual Life. It Is The Supreme Awareness Of Awareness Itself.

Meaning Of Life

To Talk About The Need For Perfection In Man Is To Talk About The Need For Another Species. The Essence Of Man Is Imperfection. Imperfection And Blazing Contradictions-between Mixed Good And Evil, Altruism And Selfishness, Cooperativeness And Combativeness, Optimism And Fatalism, Affirmation And Negation.

All Things Are Possible, Once Enough Human Beings Realize That Everything Is At Stake.

Hope Is Independent Of The Apparatus Of Logic.

Don't Defy The Diagnosis, Try To Defy The Verdict.

The Control Center Of Your Life Is Your Attitude.

A Casual Attitude Toward Human Hurt And Pain Is The Surest Sign Of Educational Failure.

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.

In A Democracy, The Individual Enjoys Not Only The Ultimate Power But Carries The Ultimate Responsibility.

Democracies Have

On The Quality Of Life: #1. Realize That Each Human Being Has A Built-in Capacity For Recuperation And Repair. #2. Recognize That The Quality Of Life Is All-important. #3. Assume Responsibility For The Quality Of Your Own Life. #4. Nurture The Regenerative And Restorative Forces Within You. #5. Utilize Laughter To Create A Mood In Which The Other Positive Emotions Can Be Put To Work For Yourself And Those Around You. #6. Develop Confidence And Ability To Feel Love, Hope And Faith, And Acquire A Strong Will To Live.

But We Have Yet To Make Peace Basic To Our Education. The Most Important Subject In The World Is Hardly Taught At All. In The Spirit Of This Passage, The Editor Has Taken The Liberty Of Editing Mr. Cousins' Language To Make It More Gender Inclusive.

Hope, Purpose And Determination Are Not Merely Mental States. They Have Electrochemical Connections That Affect The Immune System.

If News Is Not Really News Unless It Is Bad News, It May Be Difficult To Claim We Are An Informed Nation

The Heart Of The Matter Is That Some People Like To Cause Injury Or Death To Living Things. And Many Of Those Who Do Not Are Indifferent To Those Who Do.

Assume Responsibility For The Quality Of Your Own Life

Ten Minutes Of Genuine Belly Laughter Had An Anesthetic Effect And Would Give Me At Least Two Hours Of Pain-free Sleep.

No One Has Been Able To Define Or Synthesize That Precarious, Splendid, And Perhaps Untidy Instant When The Creative Process Begins. This Is What The Uniqueness Of The Artist Is All About. The Transcendent Right Of The Artist Is The Right To Create Even Though He May Not Always Know What He Is Doing.

Progress Begins With The Belief That What Is Necessary Is Possible.

It Is Well Known That Panic, Despair, Depression, Hate, Rage, Exasperation, Frustration All Produce Negative Biochemical Changes In The Body.

Never Deny A Diagnosis, But Do Deny The Negative Verdict That May Go With It.

Education Tends To Be Diagrammatic And Categorical, Opening Up No Sluices In The Human Imagination On The Wonder Of The Beauty Of Our Unique Estate In The Cosmos. Little Wonder That It Becomes So Easy For Our Young To Regard Human Hurt Casually Or To Be Uninspired By The Magic Of Sensitivity.

The One Thing I Have Learned About Editing Over The Years Is That You Have To Edit And Publish Out Of Your Own Tastes, Enthusiasms, And Concerns, And Not Out Of Notions Or Guesswork About What Other People Might Like To Read.

It Is Reasonable To Expect The Doctor To Recognize That Science May Not Have All The Answers To Problems Of Health And Healing.

Laughter May Or May Not Activate The Endorphins Or Enhance Respiration, As Some Medical Researchers Contend. What Seems Clear, However, Is That Laughter Is An Antidote To Apprehension And Panic.

Intelligence And The Spirit Of Adventure Can Be Combined To Create New Energies, And Out Of These Energies May Come Exciting And Rewarding New Prospects.

The Human Body Experiences A Powerful Gravitational Pull In The Direction Of Hope

The Physician's Ability To Reassure The Patient Is A Major Factor In Activating The Body's Own Healing System.

The American People Today Are Involved In A Warfare More Deadly Than The War In Vietnam, But Few Of Them Seem Aware Of It And Even Fewer Of Them Are Doing Anything About It. This Is A War That Is Being Waged Against The American Environment, Against Our Lands, Air, And Water, Which Are The Basis Of That Environment.

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.

Man Is Not Imprisoned By Habit. Great Changes In Him Can Be Wrought By Crisis - Once That Crisis Can Be Recognized And Understood.

We Will Not Have Peace By Afterthought.

It Is No Longer Correct To Regard Higher Education Solely As A Privilege. It Is A Basic Right In Today's World.

The Sense Of Paralysis Proceeds Not So Much Out Of The Mammoth Size Of The Problem But Out Of The Puniness Of The Purpose.

Although A Man May Have No Jurisdiction Over The Fact Of His Existence, He Can Hold Supreme Command Over The Meaning Of Existence For Him.

Meaning Of Life

The More Serious The Illness, The More Important It Is For You To Fight Back, Mobilizing All Your Resources-spiritual, Emotional, Intellectual, Physical.

The Purpose Of Education Is To Enable Us To Develop To The Fullest That Which Is Inside Us

Purpose Of Education

The Individual Is Capable Of Both Great Compassion And Great Indifference. He Has It Within His Means To Nourish The Former And Outgrow The Latter.

The Poet Reminds Men Of Their Uniqueness And It Is Not Necessary To Possess The Ultimate Definition Of This Uniqueness. Even To Speculate Is A Gain.

A Library Is The Delivery Room For The Birth Of Ideas, A Place Where History Comes To Life.

Death Is Not The Greatest Loss In Life. The Greatest Loss Is What Dies Inside Us While We Live.

The Real Wealth, Not Only Of America, But Of The World, Is In The Resources Of The Ground We Stand On, And In The Resources Of The Humankind.

The Eternal Quest Of The Individual Human Being Is To Shatter His Loneliness.

The Life-force May Be The Least Understood Force On Earth.

What People Most Need Now Is To Apply Their Conversion Skills To Those Things That Are Essential For Their Survival. They Need To Convert Facts Into Logic, Free Will Into Purpose, Conscience Into Decision. They Need To Convert Historical Experience Into A Design For A Sane World.

The Old Emphasis Upon Superficial Differences That Separate Peoples Must Give Way To Education For Citizenship In The Human Community.

Time Given To Thought Is The Greatest Time Saver Of All.

Integration Is A Basic Law Of Life; When We Resist It, Disintegration Is The Natural Result, Both Inside And Outside Of Us. Thus We Come To The Concept Of Harmony Through Integration.

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