Author

On the relationship side, if you teach people to respond actively and constructively when someone they care about has a victory, it increases love and friendship and decreases the probability of depression.

From Martin Seligman

It is the combination of reasonable talent and the ability to keep going in the face of defeat that leads to success.

From Martin Seligman

I believe it is within our capacity that by the year 2051 that 51 percent of the human population will be flourishing. That is my charge.

From Martin Seligman

I think you can be depressed and flourish, I think you can have cancer and flourish, I think you can be divorced and flourish. When we believed that happiness was only smiling and good mood, that wasn't very good for people like me, people in the lower half of positive affectivity.

From Martin Seligman

The belief that we can rely on shortcuts to happiness, joy, rapture, comfort, and ecstasy, rather than be entitled to these feelings by the exercise of personal strengths and virtues, leads to legions of people who, in the middle of great wealth, are starving spiritually.

From Martin Seligman

Positive psychology is not remotely intended to replace therapy or pharmacology. So when depressed, anxious or in panic or post-traumatic stress disorder, I am all for therapies that will work. Positive psychology is another arrow in the quiver of public policy and psychology through which we can raise wellbeing above zero.

From Martin Seligman

If we just wanted positive emotions, our species would have died out a long time ago.

From Martin Seligman

I think we pursue positive relationships whether or not they bring us engagement or happiness.

From Martin Seligman

There is an interesting scientific dispute about realism and optimism. Some find that very optimistic people have benign illusions about themselves. These people may think they have more control, or more skill, than they actually do. Others have found that optimistic people have a good handle on reality. The jury is still out.

From Martin Seligman

The word 'happiness' always bothered me, partly because it was scientifically unwieldy and meant a lot of different things to different people, and also because it's subjective.

From Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman

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