"Astrology has no more useful function than this, to discover the inmost nature of a man and to bring it out into his consciousness, that he may fulfil it according to the law of light."

"Keep on acquiring a taste for what is naturally repugnant; this is an unfailing source of pleasure."

"Keep on acquiring a taste for what is naturally repugnant; this is an unfailing source of pleasure."

"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."

"The first condition of success in magick is purity of purpose."

"Chaos is Peace… Blackness, blackness intolerable, before the beginning of the light. This is the first verse of Genesis. Holy art thou, Chaos, Chaos, Eternity, all contradictions in terms!"

"The nails from a suicide's coffin, and the skull of the parricide, were of course no trouble; for Vesquit never traveled without these household requisites."

"The Great Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with the macrocosm, of the female with the male, of the ego with the non-ego—or what not."

"I am perplexed"

"Light illuminates the path of humanity: it is our own fault if we go over the brink."

"To resist and subdue Nature is to make for one's self a personal and imperishable life: it is to break free from the vicissitudes of Life and Death."

"I do not think we were afraid of death; life had become such an infinitely boring alternation between a period of stimulation which failed to stimulate and of depression which hardly even depressed."

"Light, Life and Love are like three glow-worms at thy feet: the whole universe of stars, the dewdrops on the grass whereon thou walkest!"

"We [of Thelema] are whole-hearted extroverts; the penalty of restricting oneself is anything from neurosis to down right lunacy; in particular, melancholia."

"Stab your demoniac smile to my brain, Soak me in cognac, love, and cocaine"

"Thou hast no right but to do thy will... For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect."

"She it is, she, that found me In the morphia honeymoon; With silk and steel she bound me In her poisonous milk she drowned me, Even now her arms surround me"

"The technical developments of almost every form of wealth [e.g., oil, minerals] are the forebears of Big Business; and Big Business, directly or indirectly, is the immediate cause of War."

"It is as if the first diviner of absinthe had been indeed a magician intent upon a combination of sacred drugs which should cleanse, fortify and perfume the human soul."

"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."

"Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt"

"Sleep I forget. Her silky breath no longer fans my ears; I dream I float on some forgotten stream that hath a saviour still of death,"

"This is th' abyss. Behold wherein I lurk The lazar-house my mind, wherein do work The horrid charnel-priests, whose loathly song Sickens my soul, and quells the spirit strong."

"Love in a night shall live and die, Love in a day shall wing and fly; Love in the Spring shall last an hour, Easily fade a spring-tide flower."

"All this is true and false; and it is true and false to say that it is true and false."

"Like clouds in rain, like seas Exultant as they roll, We mix in ecstasies, And, as breeze melts in breeze, Thy soul becomes my soul."

"But to understand English is one thing; to understand an Englishman who talks is another."

"When we've all finished talking, there's something that never utters a word, but goes right down through the earth, plumb to the centre."

"Do what thou wilt, the most sublimely austere ethical precept ever uttered, despite its apparent license."

"Must not understanding lie open unto wisdom as the pyramids lie open to the stars? (6:2)"

"Verily, I say unto thee, many are the adepts that have looked upon the back parts of my father, and cried, "our eyes fail before the glory of thy countenance."

In vain we labour at the loathsome task Not knowing if we wake or sleep ; But in the end we lift the plum

"For when all is equilibrated, when all is beheld from without all, there is joy, joy, joy that is but one facet of a diamond, every other facet whereof is more joyful than joy itself."

"The man of earth is the adherent. The lover giveth his life unto the work among men. The hermit goeth solitary, and giveth only of his light unto men."