It used to be that whenever I introduced myself to people and told them I was a psychologist, they would shrink away… — 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… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
I believe psychology has done very well in working out how to understand and treat disease. But I think that is literally… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
It's my belief that, since the end of the Second World War, psychology has moved too far away from its original roots,… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
The pursuit of happiness is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence as a right of all Americans, as well as on the… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
In a society in which individualism is becoming rampant, people more and more believe that they are the center of the world.… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Positive, optimistic sales people sell more than pessimistic sales people. — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
The word 'happiness' always bothered me, partly because it was scientifically unwieldy and meant a lot of different things to different people,… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
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
P is positive emotion, E is engagement, R is relationships, M is meaning and A is accomplishment. Those are the five elements… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Perhaps the single most robust fact across many surveys is that married people are happier than anyone else. — 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
On the relationship side, if you teach people to respond actively and constructively when someone they care about has a victory, it… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
If you were an optimistic teen, then you'll be an optimist at 80. People's reactions to bad events are highly stable over… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Rather than giving people an inflated view of themselves, we need to give them concrete reasons to feel good about themselves. — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Ten years ago, when I was on an airplane and I introduced myself to my seatmate, and told them [I was a… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Not only do happy people endure pain better and take more health and safety precautions when threatened, but positive emotions undo negative… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Suppose you could be hooked up to a hypothetical 'experience machine' that, for the rest of your life, would stimulate your brain… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Some find that very optimistic people have benign illusions about themselves. These people may think they have more control, or more skill,… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
The belief that we can rely on shortcuts to happiness, joy, rapture, comfort, and ecstasy, rather than be entitled to these feelings… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
Optimistic people generally feel that good things will last a long time and will have a beneficial effect on everything they do.… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
People who believe they cause good things tend to like themselves better than people who believe good things come from other people… — Martin Seligman Copy Share Image
I think you can be depressed and flourish, I think you can have cancer and flourish, I think you can be divorced… — 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
