28 Martin Seligman Quotes for You to Enjoy

Martin Seligman

American Psychologist

Born: Aug 12, 1942

Good Happiness Life People Positive You

Related authors: Abraham Maslow Angela Duckworth B. F. Skinner Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Erich Fromm Erik Erikson Phil McGraw Wayne Dyer

Positive thinking is the notion that if you think good thoughts, things will work out well. Optimism is the feeling of thinking things will be well and be hopeful. Martin Seligman

Positive Work Good Thoughts You Will Feeling Think Thinking Positive Thinking Out Hopeful Good Thoughts Well Optimism Work Out Notion Things

Well-being cannot exist just in your own head. Well-being is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good relationships and accomplishment. Martin Seligman

Good Feeling Own Relationships Good Relationships Having Head Combination Feeling Good Well Well-Being Exist Accomplishment Just Cannot Meaning Your Actually

The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living. The meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness. Martin Seligman

Happiness Life Good Day Knowledge Every Day Power Goodness Living Every Good Life Adds Consists Signature Component More Main Same Meaningful Your Forward Using Strengths

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. Martin Seligman

Love Friendship Depression Relationship You People Victory Care Love And Friendship Increases Side Respond About Someone Probability Teach Actively

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. Martin Seligman

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 opposite ends of a continuum. I believe that you can be suffering or have a mental illness and be happy - just not in the same moment that you're sad. Martin Seligman

Sad Angry You Be Happy Happy Suffering Believe Say Those One Of The Things Mental Mental Illness Opposite Were Continuum Same Anxious Just Ends Psychologists Depressed Used Moment Illness Things

P is positive emotion, E is engagement, R is relationships, M is meaning and A is accomplishment. Those are the five elements of what free people chose to do. Pretty much everything else is in service of one of or more of these goals. That's the human dashboard. Martin Seligman

Positive Service People Goals Free Else Relationships Everything Everything Else Those Pretty More Free People Emotion Accomplishment Five Human Meaning Much Engagement Chose Elements

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. Martin Seligman

Happiness Me People Word Bothered Also Partly Because Always Scientifically Subjective Lot Different Meant Different People Different Things Things

I believe psychology has done very well in working out how to understand and treat disease. But I think that is literally half-baked. If all you do is work to fix problems, to alleviate suffering, then by definition you are working to get people to zero, to neutral. Martin Seligman

Work You Suffering People Treat Problems Believe Think Definition Out Alleviate Neutral Half-Baked Well Understand How Very Fix Get Disease Done Literally Psychology Then Working Zero

If you were an optimistic teen, then you'll be an optimist at 80. People's reactions to bad events are highly stable over a half century or more. Martin Seligman

You People Events Half Teen Bad More Highly Over Half Century Reactions Were Optimist Optimistic Stable Century Then

I don't mind being wrong, and I don't mind changing my mind. Martin Seligman

Mind Changing Wrong Being

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' gets bigger and bigger, and the 'we' gets smaller and smaller. Martin Seligman

Depression Worries Possibilities About Smaller Been America Gets Bigger Epidemic

I'm all for past influences; the question is whether they are deterministic. Freud and the behaviorists argue that what we are at any given moment is billiard balls whose past determines our future course. That doesn't take into account that we are forever generating internal representations of positive futures and choosing among them. Martin Seligman

Positive Future Past Our Futures Determines Given Argue Take Generating Course Freud Balls Question Account Forever Any Any Given Moment Influences Whether Them Choosing Internal Moment Whose Among

We have children to pursue other elements of well-being. We want meaning in life. We want relationships. Martin Seligman

Life Other Relationships Pursue Well-Being Children Want Meaning Elements

Optimistic people generally feel that good things will last a long time and will have a beneficial effect on everything they do. And they think that bad things are isolated: They won't last too long and won't affect other parts of life. Martin Seligman

Life Time Good People Good Things Will Long Bad Things Long Time Think Too Other Beneficial Everything Bad Generally Feel Parts Isolated Affect Effect Optimistic Things Last

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. Martin Seligman

Good Reality People Control Think Others Benign Out Find Some About More Scientific Still Optimism Very Optimistic Handle Than May Jury Realism Interesting Themselves Skill Found Illusions Dispute Actually

Suppose you could be hooked up to a hypothetical 'experience machine' that, for the rest of your life, would stimulate your brain and give you any positive feelings you desire. Most people to whom I offer this imaginary choice refuse the machine. It is not just positive feelings we want: we want to be entitled to our positive feelings. Martin Seligman

Positive Life You Experience People Rest Entitled Feelings Our Machine Hooked Would Give Could Hypothetical Suppose Most Stimulate Brain Up Offer Any Just Refuse Want Choice Your Whom Imaginary Desire

I have never worked on interrogation; I have never seen an interrogation, and I have only a passing knowledge of the literature on interrogation. With that qualification, my opinion is that the point of interrogation is to get at the truth, not to get at what the interrogator wants to hear. Martin Seligman

Truth Knowledge Seen Only Point Never Qualification Opinion Passing Hear Get Wants Literature Worked Interrogation

In human history, we are going from knowledge to omniscience, from potence to omnipotence, from ethics and religion to righteousness. So, in my view, God comes at the end of this long process. This may not happen in our lifetimes or even in the lifetime of our species. Martin Seligman

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 I am all for more funding for mental-health care and research - but not in the vain hope that it will curb violence. Martin Seligman

Life Hope World Care Will My Life Research Vain President Spent Mental Mental Illness More Most Am Been Curb Workers Working Illness Largest Funding Violence Association

The goal of a life free of dysphoria is a snare and a delusion. A better goal is of good commerce with the world. Authentic happiness, astonishingly, can occur even in the presence of authentic sadness. Martin Seligman

Happiness Life Good World Better Sadness Free Delusion Occur Goal Snare Authentic Commerce Even Presence

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