Norman Cousins Quotes

I'll never forget the day that I was told I would have to have a mastectomy. My reaction to the words was total denial.

I suppose the key to a good life is to gently overlook the truth and hope that at any moment we can all be reborn.

That's my policy - to be positive, to just hope that something will happen. If you start with all your fears, your receptivity is for the negative.

The very act of accepting responsibility short-circuits and cancels out any negative emotions you may be experiencing.

Accept the difficulty of what you cannot yet change. But do not accept the impossibility of ever changing it.

We wake up and are grateful for the day. Not taking away from the pain, because the pain will be there. But you live on.

You may have problems to solve but for every problem there is always a solution. It's a positive-and-negative thing: you can't have a problem without there being a solution. There always is. Your job is to find it.

Good cheer is a state of mind or mood that promotes happiness or joy... With God’s help, good cheer permits us to rise above the depressing present or difficult circumstances. It is a process of positive reassurance and reinforcement. It is sunshine when clouds block the light.

It's always been hard for me to tell the difference between denial and what used to be known as hope.

Both faith and fear may sail into your harbor, but only allow faith to drop anchor.

Living, we fret. Dying, we live. I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll be of good cheer.

Life being what it is, one dreams not of revenge. One just dreams.

How wrong to have been so negative, how wrong to have been so gloomy, how wrong to have run away from life, how wrong to have said no, again and again, instead of yes.

Success may be the ability to be happy with whatever we're stuck with.

Possess the "Nobel Factor": Possess and constantly demonstrate optimism, faith, and hope. They create choices. I am reminded of an ancient Chinese proverb: "That the birds of worry and care fly above your head, this you cannot change; but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent."

Life is a mixture of successes and failures. May you be encouraged by the successes and strengthened by the failures. As long as you never lose faith in God, you will be victorious over any situation you may face.

Be patient when it seems things are not going right and may never be right again. Accept that what is yours will come to you in the right way at just the right moment.

I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.

Just one mental shift-focusing on the abundance of your environment-switches your psychological settings so that your life automatically improves in many areas you may think are unrelated. This is essentially a leap from fear to faith.

Perhaps I failed, but I did my best, These masters of mine may do the rest.

I want to keep looking at ways to stride forward with positivity.

Hope is not attached to outcomes but is a state of mind.

Coming out of the trance of denial is painful. But crises offer us opportunities to rethink our lives. The best thing about despair is that it wakes us up. We can see the world more clearly and open to new possibilities...And we can find new joy in the ordinary.

She wasn't bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just takes time.

Two words will help you cope when you run low on hope: accept and trust.