Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world. — Albert Ellis

There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well . And the world must be easy. — Albert Ellis

Even injustice has it’s good points. It gives me the challenge of being as happy as I can in an unfair world. — Albert Ellis

I’m very happy. I like my work and I like the various aspects of it–going around the world, teaching the gospel according to St. Albert–I like that. And seeing clients, doing group therapy, writing books. — Albert Ellis

To err is human; to forgive people and yourself for poor behavior is to be sensible and realistic. — Albert Ellis

Humans can always accept themselves unconditionally. — Albert Ellis

The art of love… is largely the art of persistence. — Albert Ellis

I get people to truly accept themselves unconditionally, whether or not their therapist or anyone loves them. — Albert Ellis

Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they’re alive and human. — Albert Ellis

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

The world consists mainly of love slobs who need other people’s approval. Most people don’t live their own lives very well. — Albert Ellis

I’m one of the best–loved psychologists in the United States, but I’m also probably the most hated one. — Albert Ellis

I teach people to be flexible, scientific and logical in their thinking and therefore to be less prone to brainwashing by the therapist. — Albert Ellis

Thinking rationally is often different from ‘positive thinking,’ in that it is a realistic assessment of the situation, with a view towards rectifying the problem if possible. — Albert Ellis

People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware. — Albert Ellis

We can actually put the essence of neurosis in a single word: blaming–or damning. — Albert Ellis

People don’t just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness. — Albert Ellis

People and things do not upset us. Rather, we upset ourselves by believing that they can upset us. — Albert Ellis

If you would stop, really stop, damning yourself, others, and unkind conditions, you would find it almost impossible to upset yourself emotionally–about anything. Yes, anything. — Albert Ellis

As a result of my philosophy, I wasn’t even upset about Hitler. I was willing to go to war to knock him off, but I didn’t hate him. I hated what he was doing. — Albert Ellis

We teach people that they upset themselves. We can’t change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today. — Albert Ellis

Failure doesn’t have anything to do with your intrinsic value as a person. — Albert Ellis

I started to call myself a rational therapist in 1955; later I used the term rational emotive. Now I call myself a rational emotive behavior therapist. — Albert Ellis

In fact most of what we call anxiety is overconcern about what someone thinks of you. — Albert Ellis

Whining about your own, others’, or the world’s failings is a main element in what we usually call neurosis. — Albert Ellis

Much of what we call emotion is nothing more or less than a certain kind–a biased, prejudiced, or strongly evaluative kind–of thought. — Albert Ellis

Most things worth having require some sacrifice, usually more than you expect. — Albert Ellis

The attitude of unconditional self–acceptance is probably the most important variable in their long–term recovery. — Albert Ellis

In the old days we used to get more referrals, because people had insurance that paid for therapy. Now they belong to HMOs, and we can only be affiliated with a few HMOs. — Albert Ellis

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. — Albert Ellis

I thought foolishly that Freudian psychoanalysis was deeper and more intensive than other, more directive forms of therapy, so I was trained in it and practiced it. — Albert Ellis

I would like to be remembered as one of the individuals who founded, ideologically and practically, cognitive behavior therapy and who pioneered multimodal or integrated therapy. — Albert Ellis

I hope to die in the saddle seat. — Albert Ellis

Being assertive does not mean attacking or ignoring others feelings. It means that you are willing to hold up for yourself fairly–without attacking others. — Albert Ellis

Needing leads to bleeding–to almost all inevitable suffering. — Albert Ellis

You have only to exist as you do and to live your life as best you can. — Albert Ellis

You mainly feel the way you think. — Albert Ellis

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. — Albert Ellis

Strong feelings are fine; it’s the overreactions that mess us up. — Albert Ellis

Happiness is experienced largely in striving towards a goal, not in having attained things, because our nature is always to want to go on to the next endeavor. — Albert Ellis

The individual is taught that there is nothing that he as a total person is to feel ashamed of or self–hating for. — Albert Ellis

Worrying about dying will hardly help you live. — Albert Ellis

If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they’ll kill themselves laughing. — Albert Ellis

The trouble with most therapy is that it helps you feel better. But you don’t get better. You have to back it up with action, action, action. — Albert Ellis

If someone can enjoy marching to music in rank and file, I can feel only contempt for him; he has received his large brain by mistake, a spinal cord would have been enough. — Albert Einstein