SaturdayJan 17, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
Norman Cousins (June 24, 1915 - November 30, 1990) was a prominent political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate.
Where is the indignation about the fact that the United States and Soviet Union have accumulated thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world?
Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.
A book is like a piece of rope; it takes on meaning only in connection with the things it holds together.
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.
The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or where ones 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.
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.
Cynicism is intellectual treason.
Don't deny the diagnosis. Try to defy the verdict.
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.
If something comes to life in others because of you, then you have made an approach to immortality.
History is a vast early warning system.
The starting point for a better world is the belief that it is possible.
No one really knows enough to be a pessimist.
If there is a conflict between the security of the sovereign state and the security of the human commonwealth, the human commonwealth comes first. If there is a conflict between the well-being of the nation and the well-being of humanity, the well-being of humanity comes first. If there is a conflict between the needs of this generation and the needs of all later generations, the needs of the later generations come first. If there is a conflict between public edict and private conscience, private conscience comes first. If there is a conflict between the easy drift of prosperity and the ordeal of peace, the ordeal of peace comes first.
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
Life is an adventure in forgiving.
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.
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.
Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life.
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.
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.
The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.
Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
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