• Character: “Positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression, and, as we age, to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die.”
• Optimism: Mayo Clinic studied 839 patients who referred themselves for medical care 40 years ago. Of these, 200 had died by the year 2000; optimists lived 19 percent longer.
• Purpose: meaningful living “consists in attachment to something larger, and the larger the entity to which you can attach yourself, the more meaning in your life.”
• Religion: “Survey data consistently show religious people as being somewhat happier and more satisfied with life than nonreligious people.”
I never noticed Seligman discuss religion?
