Norman Cousins Quotes

If I were rewriting 'Love, Medicine & Miracles,' I might consider changing its title to 'The Side Effects of Cancer.' Healing is hard work, as is any change one must make in one's life. I and others have learned, however, that the side effects of cancer may not all be bad ones.

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.

One of the great things to pretend is that you're not only alright, you're in great shape. Now to have that come true - I've actually gone on stage depressed and that's worked its magic on me, 'cause if I can convince you that I'm alright, then maybe I can convince me.

Happiness is just a positive perception from our brain. Some days, you will be unhappy. Our brain is a tool we use. It's not who we are.

America is hungry for people who believe in something.

You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.

Some days I'm up, some days I'm down. But I think one thing that does get you moving is hope.

When it comes to how neuroscience could help the wider public, the worst thing is when we make advances in, say, mindfulness, and then decide that everybody can potentially think their way to curing themselves or develop their own psycho-neuro-immune mechanisms for boosting cancer defenses.

Hope is everything. Once you've lost that, you don't really have much.

Though we live in a failing world, we have not been sent here to fail.

The body has an enormous power of healing, if you really believe you are going to be healed, you're going to be healed. If you really believe you're going to die, you're going to die. If you apply this kind of method to everything, then there is hope.

The mind is malleable. Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time.

In every moment there is a reason to carry on.

He thought there was no hope for him. Me? I can't imagine a world without hope.

Just keep going - no feeling is final.

You are not happy because you are well. You are well because you are happy. You are not depressed because trouble has come to you, but trouble has come to you because you are depressed. You can change your thoughts and feelings, and then the outer things will come to correspond, and indeed there is no other way of working.

You could stand here sick with ten illnesses today, and tomorrow have no evidence of any of them. Your body has the ability to replenish itself that fast. But most of you do not have the ability to change your thoughts that fast. So the amount of time that it takes between sickness and wellness is only the amount of time that it takes for me to figure out how to let it in - for me to figure out how to feel good, when I'm looking at something that makes me feel bad.

I myself become terrified of death when I am in a negative state of mind. But the thought of death ceases to bother me once I become productive.

I never understood the point of being sad when I could choose to be happy

All things being equal, attitude wins. All things not being equal, attitude sometimes still wins.

Hope that is the only antidote to fear.

The general law is that no mental modification ever occurs which is not accompanied or followed by a bodily change.

But I cheered myself up slightly with the rationalization that all new relationships - even the fictional ones - have obstacles to overcome in the beginning. I would not give up hope on this one. Not yet.

Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.

In dire times you can lose joy, but you can't lose hope. Hope is your guide.