"The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world, think about misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are confined to this one case."

"One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think."

"What is crucial is what you think when you fail, using the power of “non-negative thinking.” 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."

"People who believe they cause good things tend to like themselves better than people who believe good things come from other people or circumstances."

"In optimists, a failure produces only brief demoralization."

"A composer can have all the talent of a Mozart and a passionate desire to succeed, but if he believes he cannot compose  music, he will come to nothing. He will not try hard enough. He will give up too soon when the elusive right melody takes too long to materialize."

"Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that optimistic explanatory style is the key to persistence."

"Non-depressed people—optimists, for the most part—believe they have much more control over things than they actually do, particularly when they are helpless and have no control at all."

"The optimistic moments of our lives contain the great plans, the dreams, and the hopes."

"If you start off optimistic and you are also depressed, you get better. If you start off optimistic and you are not depressed, you stay depression-free."

"So the first way in which optimism might affect your health across your lifetime is by preventing helplessness and thereby keeping immune defenses feistier."

"So optimists, who readily take matters into their own hands, are more likely to take action that prevents illness or get it treated once illness strikes."

"Who survived the longest? Those who felt great joy in living and those with optimistic explanatory style."

"Pessimistic individuals get depressed more easily and more often. This might mean that pessimistic people generally have poorer immune activity."

"There is convincing evidence that psychological states do affect your health."

"Becoming an optimist consists not of learning to be more selfish and self-assertive, and to present yourself to others in
overbearing ways, but simply of learning a set of skills about how to talk to yourself when you suffer a personal defeat. You will learn to speak to yourself about your setbacks from a more encouraging viewpoint."

Quotes of wisdom by Martin E. P. Seligman
How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

Motivating Quotes

More Motivational Quotes:

• Melvyn L. Fein.

People who are brave enough to stand up to life's hardships have a better chance of surmounting them. They are thus more likely to acquire satisfying jobs and loving relationships.
 
• Brendon Burchard

No matter your position, circumstances, or opportunities in life, you always have the freedom of mind to choose how you experience, interpret, and, ultimately, shape your world.
 
• Jason Fried

Momentum fuels motivation.  It keeps you going.  It drives you.  Without it, you can't go anywhere.  If you aren't motivated by what you're working on, it won't be very good.