Quotes from Albert Ellis

Thinking rationally is often different from "positive thinking," in that it is a realistic assessment of the situation, with a view towards rectifying the problem if possible.

People and things do not upset us. Rather, we upset ourselves by believing that they can upset us.

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.

Much of what we call emotion is nothing more or less than a certain kind - a biased, prejudiced, or strongly evaluative kind - of thought.

The art of love is largely the art of persistence.

If human emotions largely result from thinking, then one may appreciably control one's feelings by controlling one's thoughts - or by changing the internalized sentences, or self-talk, with which one largely created the feeling in the first place.

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.

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

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.

Anger is the only negative emotion that people all over the world usually want to keep.

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

Intense rage will normally make you stew instead of do when you encounter unfairness, and if you act while enraged you will often fight foolishly and badly.