199 Quotes by Norman Cousins

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.

I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking. But I strongly object when they start shaking them to make sure they are still going.

In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.

Do you prefer that you be right or happy?

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.

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.

Assume responsibility for the quality of your own life

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?"

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.