In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility. Norman Cousins More Quotes by Norman Cousins More Quotes From Norman Cousins Life is an adventure in forgiveness. Norman Cousins forgiveness life-changing inspirational 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. Norman Cousins perspective skills people 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. Norman Cousins able creative artist 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. Norman Cousins historical book ideas The need is to recognize that The patient is the healer, Not the doctor. Norman Cousins doctors patient needs 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. Norman Cousins determination attitude moving The need is not to amputate the ego ... but to transcend it. Norman Cousins ego needs The possibility of war increases in direct proportion to the effectiveness of the instruments of war. Norman Cousins effectiveness possibility war Progress begins with the belief that what is necessary is possible. Norman Cousins progress motivational life 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. Norman Cousins energy may adventure 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. Norman Cousins laughter humor exercise 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. Norman Cousins design people thinking An adequate share of humor and laughter represents an essential part of the diet of the healthy person. Norman Cousins laughter essentials healthy 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. Norman Cousins moon messages needs The marvelous pharmacy that was designed by nature and placed into our being by the universal architect produces most of the medicines we need. Norman Cousins architect medicine needs Assume responsibility for the quality of your own life Norman Cousins quality responsibility attitude 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. Norman Cousins meaning-of-life respect inspire 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. Norman Cousins meaning-of-life may men 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 bombs despair next If news is not really news unless it is bad news, it may be difficult to claim we are an informed nation Norman Cousins news claims may