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Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.

Norman Cousins

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Norman Cousins
Age: 75 †
Born: 1915
Born: June 24
Died: 1990
Died: November 30
Journalist
Literary Critic
Peace Activist
Professor
Writer
Union City
New Jersey
Positive
Deals
Prospects
Waiting
Pessimism
Facts
Optimistic
Doesn
Optimism
Time
Wait
Perspective
Waste

More quotes by Norman Cousins

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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.
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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.
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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.
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Your heaviest artillery will be your will to live. Keep that big gun going.
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The marvelous pharmacy that was designed by nature and placed into our being by the universal architect produces most of the medicines we need.
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Nothing is more essential in the treatment of serious disease than the liberation of the patient from panic and foreboding.
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Laughter is a form of internal jogging. It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectations.
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It is no longer correct to regard higher education solely as a privilege. It is a basic right in today's world.
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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.
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Cynicism is intellectual treason.
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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.
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You are younger today than you will ever be again. Make use of it for the sake of tomorrow.
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Words have to be crafted, not sprayed. They need to be fitted together with infinite care.
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To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species.
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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.
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People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.
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The most costly disease is boredom costly for both individual and society.
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Second only to freedom, learning is the most precious option on earth.
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For every low there is an equal but opposite high.
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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.
Norman Cousins