Norman Cousins

The way a book is read, which is to say, the qualities a reader brings to a book can have as much to do with its worth as anything the author puts into it.

A book is like a piece of rope; it takes on meaning only in connection with the things it holds together.

A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says, thinks or does is without consequences.

The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.

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.

The only security for the American people today, or for any people, is to be found through the control of force rather than the use of force.