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

The Fundamentalist Religions simply seem to offer more hope for a brighter future than do the more liberal, humanistic ones.

Psychology should be just as concerned with building strength as with repairing damage

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.

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.

What determines how much time and deliberate practice a child is willing to devote to achievement? Nothing less than her character.

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.