There is an interesting scientific dispute about realism and optimism. Some find that very optimistic people have benign illusions about themselves. These… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Positive emotion can be about the past, the present, or the future. The positive emotions about the future include optimism, hope, faith,… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
When it comes to our health, there are essentially four things under our control: the decision not to smoke, a commitment to… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Positive thinking is the notion that if you think good thoughts, things will work out well. Optimism is the feeling of thinking… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
There are physical characteristics which are inherited. These include things like good looks, high intelligence, physical coordination. These attributes contribute to success… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Changing the destructive things you say to yourself when you experience the setbacks that life deals all of us is the central… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Optimism is a tool with a certain clear set of benefits: it fights depression, it promotes achievement and produces better health. — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Optimism generates hope...hope releases dreams...dreams set goals...enthusiasm follows — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Optimism is invaluable for the meaningful life. With a firm belief in a positive future, you can throw yourself into the service… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
It used to be that whenever I introduced myself to people and told them I was a psychologist, they would shrink away from me.… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
I have never worked on interrogation; I have never seen an interrogation, and I have only a passing knowledge of the literature on interrogation.… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
I'm trying to broaden the scope of positive psychology well beyond the smiley face. Happiness is just one-fifth of what human beings choose to… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
It's a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
One of the things psychologists used to say was that if you are depressed, anxious or angry, you couldn't be happy. Those were at… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
It is the combination of reasonable talent and the ability to keep going in the face of defeat that leads to success. — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Psychology is much bigger than just medicine, or fixing unhealthy things. It's about education, work, marriage - it's even about sports. What I want… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
What humans want is not just happiness. They want justice; they want meaning. — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
I have spent most of my life working with mental illness. I have been president of the world's largest association of mental-illness workers, and… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Finding permanent and universal causes for misfortune is the practice of despair... — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
We deprive our children, our charges, of persistence. What I am trying to say is that we need to fail, children need to fail,… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
One of my worries about America is the epidemic of depression we've been in. One of the possibilities about that is that the 'I'… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
