Respect for the fragility and importance of an individual life is still the mark of an educated man.
Norman CousinsRead
Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
Interpretation
Choosing happiness over being right can lead to a more fulfilling life.
This quote by Norman Cousins emphasizes the importance of prioritizing happiness over the need to always be correct. In many situations, clinging to the idea of being right can lead to conflict and dissatisfaction, while choosing happiness encourages acceptance and peace, often leading to better relationships and a more joyful life.
In practice
In a relationship discussion, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of compromising for happiness rather than insisting on being correct.
Respect for the fragility and importance of an individual life is still the mark of an educated man.
Never deny a diagnosis, but do deny the negative verdict that may go with it.
Although a man may have no jurisdiction over the fact of his existence, he can hold supreme command over the meaning of existence for him.
People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.
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.
Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is.
Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it 'for a reasonable period'--and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.
Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows.
Alas," said Aslan, shaking his head. "It will. Things always work according to their nature. She has won her heart's desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it.
Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair.
That which hurts, also instructs.
The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.