Quote

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.

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
Moving
Failing
Definition
Men
Pay
Definitions
Achieve
Ahead
Simply
Price
Start
Embrace
Free
Essence
Success
Forward
Learn
Failure
Imperfection

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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.
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Death is not the greatest tragedy in life. The greatest tragedy is what dies inside us while we live. We need not fear death. We need fear only that we may exist without having sensed something of the possibilities that lie within human existence.
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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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All this sensory input, which begins in the brain, has its effect throughout the body.
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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.
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Death is not the enemy living in constant fear of it is.
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The control center of your life is your attitude.
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Words have to be crafted, not sprayed. They need to be fitted together with infinite care.
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Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions
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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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Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is.
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The old emphasis upon superficial differences that separate peoples must give way to education for citizenship in the human community.
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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.
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Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.
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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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Progress begins with the belief that what is necessary is possible.
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The doctor knows that it is the prescription slip itself, even more than what is written on it, that is often the vital ingredient for enabling a patient to get rid of whatever is ailing him.
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We will not have peace by afterthought.
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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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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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