Albert Ellis Quotes

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

People don't just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness.

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

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

And just as two wrongs don't make a right, rage against offenders is probably the worst way to try to correct them.

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.

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

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

The goal of all life is to have a ball.

So I'd better stop my whining and help myself cope better with even the worst Adversities.

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

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.

The easy way out is often just that-the 'easy' way out of the most rewarding lifestyle.

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

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.

If I had been a member of the academic establishment, I could have done other experiments.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Worry itself is one of the most painful conditions.

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.

I hope to die in the saddle seat.

Religious fanaticism has clearly produced, and in all probability will continue to produce, enormous amounts of bickering, fighting, violence, bloodshed, homicide, feuds, wars, and genocide.

I regret that I've been so busy with clinical work that I haven't been able to spend much time on experiments and outcome studies.

I'm very happy. I like my work and the various aspects of it - going around the world, teaching the gospel according to St. Albert.

Humans can always accept themselves unconditionally.

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.

As a matter of fact, 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.

I'm one of the best-loved psychologists in the United States, but I'm also probably the most hated one.

Freud had a gene for inefficiency, and I think I have a gene for efficiency. Had I not been a therapist, I would have been an efficiency expert.

The art of love ... is largely the art of persistence.