People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware.

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.

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.

I hope to die in the saddle seat.

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

I wrote several articles criticizing psychoanalysis, but the analysts weren't listening to my objections. So I finally quit after practicing it for six years.

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 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...

People got insights into what was bothering them, but they hardly did a damn thing to change.

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...

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

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.

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

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

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 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...

Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional.

You largely constructed your depression. It wasn't given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it.

The art of love is largely the art of persistence.

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.