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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.

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
People
Governments
Truths
Perceive
Large
Built
Small
Specialize
Government
Intermediate
Great
Instructed

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.
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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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Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions
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We have everything we need, in fact, except the most important thing of all — time to think and the habit of thought.
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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.
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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.
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Words have to be crafted, not sprayed. They need to be fitted together with infinite care.
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War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace with justice.
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Cynicism is intellectual treason.
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The purpose of education is to enable us to develop to the fullest that which is inside us
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A casual attitude toward human hurt and pain is the surest sign of educational failure.
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Don't defy the diagnosis, try to defy the verdict.
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For every low there is an equal but opposite high.
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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.
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In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.
Norman Cousins