Albert Ellis quotes

Albert Ellis was an American psychologist who founded Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). This innovative approach has greatly influenced modern cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychological treatment. He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in the field of psychotherapy. Here are 104 of his quotes:

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You don't blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the President. You realize that you control your own destiny. (Albert Ellis)
The art of love... is largely the art of persistence. View quote
Albert Ellis
You largely constructed your depression. It wasn't given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Albert Ellis
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. View quote
Albert Ellis
I get people to truly accept themselves unconditionally, whether or not their therapist or anyone loves them. View quote
Albert Ellis
Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world. View quote
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. View quote
Albert Ellis
Many psychoanalysts refused to let me speak at their meetings. They were exceptionally vigorous because I had previously been an analyst and they were very angry at my flying the coop. (Albert Ellis)
I had a great many sex and love cases where people were absolutely devastated when somebody with whom they were compulsively in love didn't love them back. They were killing themselves with anxiety and depression. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Albert Ellis
If I had been a member of the academic establishment, I could have done other experiments. View quote
Albert Ellis
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. View quote
Albert Ellis
There's no evidence whatsoever that men are more rational than women. Both sexes seem to be equally irrational. View quote
Albert Ellis
Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional. View quote
Albert Ellis
Most people would have given up when faced with all the criticism I've received over the years. View quote
Albert Ellis
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. View quote
Albert Ellis
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. (Albert Ellis)
You have considerable power to construct self-helping thoughts, feelings and actions as well as to construct self-defeating behaviors. You have the ability, if you use it, to choose healthy instead of unhealthy thinking, feeling and acting. View quote
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. View quote
Albert Ellis
In a sense, the religious person must have no real views of his own and it is presumptuous of him, in fact, to have any. In regard to sex-love affairs, to marriage and family relations, to business, to politics, and to virtually everything else that is important in his life, he must try to discover what his god and his clergy would like him to do; and he must primarily do their bidding. View quote
Albert Ellis
For that again, is what all manner of religion essentially is: childish dependency. View quote
Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis

Occupation: American Psychologist
Born: September 27, 1913
Died: July 24, 2007
Quotes count: 104

Related authors

Aaron Beck - thumbnail
Aaron Beck  2 
American Psychiatrist
Carl Rogers - thumbnail
Carl Rogers  33 
American Psychologist
Albert Bandura - thumbnail
Albert Bandura  12 
Canadian Psychologist
Frederick Salomon Perls - thumbnail
Frederick Salomon Perls  3 
American Psychologist
Alfred Adler  56 
Austrian Psychologist
Epictetus - thumbnail
Epictetus  263 
Greek Philosopher
B. F. Skinner - thumbnail
B. F. Skinner  68 
American Psychologist
David D. Burns - thumbnail
David D. Burns  47 
American Psychiatrist
Carl Jung  298 
Swiss Psychiatrist
Abraham Maslow  58 
American Psychologist