"I've often thought that there isn't any "I" at all; that we are simply the means of expression of something else; that when we think we are ourselves, we are simply the victims of a delusion."

"The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules—but you have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are not in a position to transcend them."

"May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall!"

"I'm a poet, and I like my lies the way my mother used to make them."

"Virtue is but heroic bravery, to do the thing thought to be true, in spite of all enemies of flesh or spirit, in despite of all temptations or menaces."

"That which we say and do, if its effects last not beyond our lives, is unimportant."

"Man is not to be comprehended as a starting-point, or progress as a goal, without those two great forces , Faith and Love . Prayer is sublime."

"There is a deformity of baseness corresponding to the ugliness of the tyranny."

"To sow, that others may reap; to work and plant for those that are to occupy the earth when we are dead; to project our influences far into the future, and live beyond our time; to rule as the Kings of Thought, over men who are yet unborn; to bless with the glorious gifts of Truth and Light and Liberty those who will neither know the name of the giver, nor care in what grave his unregarded ashes repose, is the true office of a Mason and the proudest destiny of a man."

"True thoughts have duration in themselves. If the thoughts endure, the seed is enduring; if the seed endures, the energy endures; if the energy endures, then will the spirit endure. The spirit is thought; thought is the heart; the heart is the fire; the fire is the Elixir."

"What We Have done for Ourselves Alone Dies With Us;What we have done for Others and the world Remais and is Immortal."

"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal."

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

"My rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) was one of the very few therapies that was originated partly or largely because I wanted to be brief and efficient. And therefore right from the start I was active and directive. I tried to show people some central masturbatory core to their philosophy and to get them to work at changing it cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally."

"Spirit and soul is horseshit of the worst sort. Obviously there are no fairies, no Santa Clauses, no spirits. What there is, is human goals and purposes as noted by sane existentialists. But a lot of transcendentalists are utter screwballs."

"For many years now I have had the quaint idea that all humans-yes, the whole six billion of them on this planet-are out of their fucking minds."

"Too many people are unaware that it is not outer events or circumstances that will create happiness; rather, it is our perception of events and of ourselves that will create, or uncreate, positive emotions."

"Insight will help you very little."

"Most things worth having require some sacrifice, usually more than you expect."

"Let's suppose somebody abused you sexually. You still had a choice, though not a good one, about what to tell yourself about the abuse."

"The goal of all life is to have a ball."

"You have only to exist as you do and to live your life as best you can."

"People got insights into what was bothering them, but they hardly did a damn thing to change."

"If something is irrational, that means it won't work. It's usually unrealistic."