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.”

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

“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, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.”

“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 got insights into what was bothering them, but they hardly did a d--n thing to change.”

“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 the future of psychotherapy and psychology is in the school system. We need to teach every child how to rarely seriously disturb himself or herself and how to overcome disturbance when it occurs.”

“I hope to die in the saddle seat.”

“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.”

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

“For that again, is what all manner of religion essentially is: childish dependency.”

“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.”

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