Martin Seligman Quotes

Creativity is bound up in our ability to find new ways around old problems.

Martin Seligman

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Quotes to Explore

• What other grown-up gets told how to do their job so often as a writer?

  

  Rachel Cusk
  • Up
  • Job
  • Writer

• I was brought up in a very poor and very violent household. I spent much of my childhood being afraid.

  

  Patrick Stewart
  • Up
  • Childhood
  • Afraid

• Don't spend more than 10% of your marketing/PR budget on a trailer. Trailers have to be marketed, too. So, far too many authors wind up marketing their trailers instead of their books.

  

  M. J. Rose
  • Up
  • Wind
  • Marketing

• Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.

  

  Carl Sagan
  • Survival
  • Rule
  • Extinction

• My mom started working at the California Shakespeare Theater in Oakland when I was two years old, so I've always grown up around theater.

  

  Zendaya
  • Up
  • Mom
  • Years

• I read a lot of comic books and any kind of thing I could find. One day, a teacher found me. She grabbed my comic book and tore it up. I was really upset, but then she brought in a pile of books from her own library. That was the best thing that ever happened to me.

  

  Walter Dean Myers
  • Up
  • She
  • Book

• It's a notion that career-oriented women often neglect their families. But we should cut them some flak; these women are doing everything for the sake of family so that it progresses. I believe when kids see their mothers working hard, they take up responsibilities at home and are far more well-turned out than other children.

  

  Madhuri Dixit
  • Up
  • Believe
  • Women

• I have nothing revolutionary or even novel to offer.

  

  Samuel E. Morison
  • Nothing
  • Revolutionary
  • Even

• Through everything I've gone through- and I've been everywhere, at the top of the world, in jail, hung over drunk - I never gave up my dream of winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

  

  Dan O'Brien
  • Up
  • World
  • Dream

• I grew up watching my mom and dad selling rooms in our motels. We had CEOs coming to our house so that my dad could persuade them to have their executives stay in Hyatt hotels.

  

  J. B. Pritzker
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  • House
  • Dad

• I don't like giving up hits and stuff, but I try not to show it. I don't want the hitter to see that something bothers me.

  

  Jacob deGrom
  • Up
  • Want
  • Giving

• I grew up with all these old jazz guys in the '70s in L.A., and they grew up idolizing Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Lester Young - all of these incredible musicians.

  

  Flea Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Up
  • Old
  • Jazz

• Here's the miracle: I grew up thinking, 'Wouldn't it be great to write 'Superman' someday? Wouldn't it be great to create my own show, or work on 'Lensman,' or 'Forbidden Planet?' Those were very literally the goals I set for myself, the dreams that I thought I didn't have a chance in hell of ever actually achieving. But it's happened.

  

  J. Michael Straczynski
  • Up
  • Work
  • Great

• During the first 13 centuries after the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, no one thought of setting up a creche to celebrate Christmas. The pre-eminent Christian holiday was Easter, not Christmas.

  

  Nancy Pearcey
  • Up
  • Christian
  • Jesus

• It's nice to stay up nights worrying about the material, and not about the investors who gave you $10 million to do your musical.

  

  Harold Prince
  • Up
  • You
  • Nice

• I've gone on streaks where I haven't shot the ball well here, but I was always making up for it in other areas, so it wasn't as big. It's just a part of the game. I got to do better with it.

  

  J. R. Smith
  • Up
  • Game
  • Always

• Nobody wants to be on food stamps, but when my family lost everything, we were grateful for it. I was grateful the program was there so I could concentrate on my schoolwork and not on my empty belly. We were grateful that we had the support we needed to roll up our sleeves and rebuild our lives.

  

  Tammy Duckworth
  • Up
  • Family
  • Food

• Praise those of your critics for whom nothing is up to standard.

  

  Dag Hammarskjold
  • Up
  • Nothing
  • Praise

• At the time, I was in L.A., just auditioning and hoping to land a part, dramatic or comedic. I started to feel really stagnant, waiting for a part. I was also taking classes at UCB and Groundlings, and at the higher levels, they focus on writing. It was such a relief to be able to write. During those programs, I wrote a one-woman show called Me, Myself, and Iran, and it ended up getting to Tina Fey. She recommended me to audition for SNL, so I got my first of two auditions through her.

  

  Nasim Pedrad
  • Up
  • Time
  • Writing

• When I was younger, I used to play mind games in which I'd try to finish tasks in minutes. My favorite was when I would shower, lay out my school clothes, then devour my dinner - in 15 minutes flat.

  

  Alexa Von Tobel
  • Mind
  • School

• Let the tech firms and consulting firms build your skills, but be sure to ask yourself, 'Am I maximizing my impact?' 'Am I living up to my values?'

  

  Wendy Kopp
  • Up
  • Yourself
  • Values

• It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

  

  James F. Cooper
  • Men
  • Law
  • Opinion

• If something bothers you, focus on the solution or the desired outcome, not the part that has you spinning out in the middle of the night.

  

  Jen Sincero
  • Night
  • Focus

• Creativity is bound up in our ability to find new ways around old problems.

  

  Martin Seligman
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  • Creativity