Albert Ellis

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

“Neurosis is just a high-class word for whining.”

“Even when people act obnoxiously, you don't have to get upset.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“The emotionally mature individual should completely accept the fact that we live in a world of probability and chance, where there are not, nor probably ever will be, any absolute certainties.”

“You have considerable power to construct self-helping thoughts, feelings and actions as well as to construct self-defeating behaviors.”

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

“By honestly acknowledging your past errors, but never damning yourself for them, you can learn to use your past for your own future benefit.”

“The trouble with most therapy is that it helps you to feel better. But you don't get better. You have to back it up with action, action, action.”

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

“Stop shoulding on yourself.”

“Men are not disturbed by things, but by the views which they take of them.”