"By not caring too much about what people think, I'm able to think for myself and propagate ideas which are very often unpopular. And I succeed."

"We teach people that they upset themselves. We can't change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today."

"Whenever you avoid alarming situations, you almost always increase your anxiety about them."

"The individual is taught that there is nothing that he as a total person is to feel ashamed of or self-hating for."

"People could rationally decide that prolonged relationships take up too much time and effort and that they'd much rather do other kinds of things. But most people are afraid of rejection."

"I think it's unfair, but they have the right as fallible, screwed-up humans to be unfair; that's the human condition."

"Unless, of course, you insist on identifying yourself with the people and things you love; and thereby seriously disturb yourself."

"I had used eclectic therapy and behavior therapy on myself at the age of 19 to get over my fear of public speaking and of approaching young women in public."

"People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware."

"Freudian therapists do a lot of listening and very little persuading, and that was one of the reasons I eventually gave up being an analyst. You had to be too passive and not speak up, and you couldn't give homework to clients. While I was still an analyst, I wrote several articles criticizing psychoanalysis, but the analysts weren't listening to my objections. So I finally quit psychoanalysis after practicing it for six years."

"Much of what we call emotion is nothing more or less than a certain kind - a biased, prejudiced, or strongly evaluative kind - of thought."

"The concept of deservingness for one’s “sins” implies that certain acts are unquestionably under all conditions “sinful.” And this is impossible to prove."

"Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth."

"There's no evidence whatsoever that men are more rational than women. Both sexes seem to be equally irrational."

"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny."

"We can't change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today."

"Whining about your own, others', or the world's failings is a main element in what we usually call neurosis."

"Worrying about dying will hardly help you live."

"The more sinful and guilty a person tends to feel, the less chance there is that he will be a happy, healthy, or law-abiding citizen. He will become a compulsive wrong-doer."

"Needing leads to bleeding - to almost all inevitable suffering."

"Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world."

"Most people would have given up when faced with all the criticism I've received over the years."

"If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they'll kill themselves laughing."

"We can actually put the essence of neurosis in a single word: blaming - or damning."