Curing the negatives does not produce the positives.

Ten years ago, when I was on an airplane and I introduced myself to my seatmate, and told them [I was a psychologist], they'd move away from me. ... And now when I tell people what I do, they move toward me.

In a society in which individualism is becoming rampant, people more and more believe that they are the center of the world. Such a belief system makes individual failure almost inconsolable.

Curing the negatives does not produce the positives.

Optimism is a tool with a certain clear set of benefits: it fights depression, it promotes achievement and produces better health.

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.

When we take time to notice the things that go right - it means we're getting a lot of little rewards throughout the day.