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.

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

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.

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

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.

Changing the destructive things you say to yourself when you experience the setbacks that life deals all of us is the central skill of optimism.

Doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.