Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.
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.
People who develop the habit of thinking of themselves as world citizens are fulfilling the first requirement of sanity in our time.
The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it withing his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.
A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.
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.
Never deny a diagnosis but do deny the negative verdict that may go with it.
Death is not the enemy living in constant fear of it is.
The most costly disease is not cancer or coronaries. The most costly disease is boredom – costly for both individual and society.
The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope. That is why the patient’s hopes are the physician’s secret weapon. They are the hidden ingredients in any prescription.
It has always seemed to me that hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.
The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.
Don’t defy the diagnosis try to defy the verdict.
Nothing is more essential in the treatment of serious disease than the liberation of the patient from panic and forboding.
It is nonsense to say there is not enough time to be fully informed. … Time given to thought is the greatest timesaver of all.
War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace.
To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species.
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.
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.
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 possibility of war increases in direct proportion to the effectiveness of the instruments of war.
Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.
The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope. That is why the patient’s hopes are the physician’s secret weapon. They are the hidden ingredients in any prescription.
The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.
Respect for the fragility and importance of an individual life is still the mark of an educated man.
People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.
What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.
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.
The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives – the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or the glory of other men in yourself.
Optimism doesn’t wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.
Hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.
It is reasonable to expect the doctor to recognize that science may not have all the answers to problems of health and healing.
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.
My reason nourishes my faith and my faith my reason.
Your heaviest artillery will be your will to live. Keep that big gun going.
Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.