Positive Psychology Quotes

• The aim of Positive Psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life.

  Martin Seligman

  Things In Life, Psychology, Quality

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• 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 do.

  Martin Seligman

  Psychology, Trying, Faces

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• The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.

  Carl Rogers

  Inspirational, Life, Journey

  Carl Rogers (2012). “On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy”, p.186, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• You don't have to be the best at something. You just have to be the most determined.

  Lauren Burns

  Psychology, Determined, Being The Best

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• A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Freedom, Joy, Recipes

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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• Reaching beyond where you are is really important.

  Martin Seligman

  Important, Reaching, Where You Are

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• When well-being comes from engaging our strengths and virtues, our lives are imbued with authenticity.

  Martin Seligman

  Psychology, Authenticity, Virtue

  Martin Seligman (2011). “Authentic Happiness”, p.17, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

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• When you appreciate the good, the good appreciates.

  Tal Ben-Shahar

  Appreciate, Psychology

  Tal Ben-Shahar (2014). “Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness”, p.154, Algonquin Books

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• Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.

  Tyler Knott Gregson

  Water, Psychology, Swim

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• Positivity psychology is part and parcel of psychology. Being human includes both ups and downs, opportunities and challenges. Positive psychology devotes somewhat more attention to the ups and the opportunities, whereas traditional psychology - at least historically - has paid more attention to the downs.

  Barbara Fredrickson

  Positivity, Opportunity, Psychology

  "Barbara Fredrickson Talks About…". Interview with Seph Fontane Pennock, positivepsychologynews.com. January 20, 2015.

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• Psychology is much bigger than just medicine, or fixing unhealthy things. Its about education, work, marriage - its even about sports. What I want to do is see psychologists working to help people build strengths in all these domains.

  Martin Seligman

  Sports, Medicine, People

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• Life can show up no other way than that way in which you perceive it.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Psychology, Way, Conversations With God

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• Purposeful action is thus the goal of all that is truly educative.

  John Dewey

  Goal, Psychology, Action

  John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, John J. McDermott (2008). “The Later Works, 1925-1953: 1935-1937”, p.501, SIU Press

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• So Positive Psychology takes seriously the bright hope that if you find yourself stuck in the parking lot of life, with few and only ephemeral pleasures, with minimal gratifications, and without meaning, there is a road out. This road takes you through the countryside of pleasure and gratification, up into the high country of strength and virtue, and finally to the peaks of lasting fulfillment: meaning and purpose

  Martin Seligman

  Country, Psychology, Finding Yourself

  Martin Seligman (2011). “Authentic Happiness”, p.10, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

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• My all-time favorite topic in positive psychology is the study of positive emotions. I'm fascinated by how pleasant experiences, which can be so subtle and fleeting, can add up over time to change who we become. I'm especially excited these days about investigating how positive emotions change the very ways that our cells form and function to keep us healthy.

  Barbara Fredrickson

  Cells, Psychology, Healthy

  "Barbara Fredrickson Talks About…". Interview with Seph Fontane Pennock, positivepsychologynews.com. January 20, 2015.

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• Positive psychology is both a movement and a science. The movement involves absolutely anyone who is interested in evidence-based approaches to improving well-being, either for themselves or for their community. I invite you to join this movement!

  Barbara Fredrickson

  Community, Psychology, Movement

  "Barbara Fredrickson Talks About…". Interview with Seph Fontane Pennock, positivepsychologynews.com. January 20, 2015.

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• The good life is best construed as a matrix that includes happiness, occasional sadness, a sense of purpose, playfulness, and psychological flexibility, as well autonomy, mastery, and belonging.

  Robert Biswas-Diener

  Good Life, Sadness, Psychology

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• Positive psychology is to the corporate state what eugenics was to the Nazis

  Chris Hedges

  Eugenics, Psychology, Nazi

  Chris Hedges (2014). “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle”, p.117, Nation Books

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• 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

  Optimistic, Thinking, Reality

  "Martin Seligman : Pursuing Happiness With a Positive Outlook, not a Pill". Interview with Steve Proffitt, articles.latimes.com. January 24, 1999.

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• A lot of positive psychology is stuck in being the psychology of privilege, and I reject that.

  Ariel Gore

  Psychology, Privilege, Stuck

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• What I remember the most about my childhood is constant fear and "good food." I don't want to get into the greasy, buttery, deep-fried, fatty, sugary, meaty, barbecued details here, but with no knowledge of healthy lifestyles or positive psychology, time took its toll on me.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Childhood, Psychology, Healthy

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• By activating an expansive, tolerant, and creative mindset, positive feelings maximize the social, intellectual, and physical benefits that will accrue.

  Martin Seligman

  Creative, Feelings, Psychology

  Martin Seligman (2011). “Authentic Happiness”, p.44, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

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• As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found- in himself.

  Erich Fromm

  Believe, Past, Clouds

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• My view on well-being and fulfillment comes from Maslow and positive psychology, and that is that you're satisfying three sets of needs. First need is physiological and safety needs: Got to satisfy those first. And the second is you got to satisfy your community needs because we're social animals, and if we don't have that, we're empty and we don't have people to share knowledge and bounce things off of, and challenge ourselves. And then the third is the idea is to find a calling.

  Charles Koch

  Animal, Views, Ideas

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• Maybe, through the stories I share about my life and others and the medical research that has been dedicated to the world of positive psychology, they'll relate to the power of a positive perspective and change the world one person at a time. Pipe dream, of course, but I love the thought of being given the chance to inspire!

  Trista Sutter

  Dream, Perspective, Psychology

  "Trista Sutter from The Bachelorette: Spreading the Gift of Gratitude". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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