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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.

Albert Ellis

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Albert Ellis
Age: 93 †
Born: 1913
Born: September 27
Died: 2007
Died: July 24
Behaviour Therapist
Cognitive Scientist
Non-Fiction Writer
Psychologist
Sex Educator
Pittsburg
Pennsylvania
Realizing
Confidence
Psychologist
Problem
Fate
Ecology
Best
Control
Destiny
Depression
Years
Responsibility
Decided
Psychology
Life
Happiness
Realize
Twenties
Success
Ones
Decide
President
Problems
Blame
Inspirational
Attitude
Election
Outgrowing
Mother

More quotes by Albert Ellis

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If I had been a member of the academic establishment, I could have done other experiments.
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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.
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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.
Albert Ellis
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We'd better work hard on getting rid of that must - Other people must do what I want them to do! It's what makes people hostile, nasty, mean and combative, and it leads to feuds, wars and genocide. We'd better do something about that.
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Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth.
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So I'd better stop my whining and help myself cope better with even the worst Adversities.
Albert Ellis
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If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they'll kill themselves laughing.
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I hope to die in the saddle seat.
Albert Ellis
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Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional.
Albert Ellis
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People got insights into what was bothering them, but they hardly did a damn thing to change.
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When people change their irrational beliefs to undogmatic flexible preferences, they become less disturbed.
Albert Ellis
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People don't just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness. They always have the power to think, and to think about their thinking, and to think about thinking about their thinking, which the goddamn dolphin, as far as we know, can't do. Therefore they have much greater ability to change themselves than any other animal has.
Albert Ellis
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By honestly acknowledging your past errors, but never damning yourself for them, you can learn to use your past for your own future benefit.
Albert Ellis
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You have only to exist as you do and to live your life as best you can.
Albert Ellis
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Failure doesn't have anything to do with your intrinsic value as a person.
Albert Ellis
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The goal of all life is to have a ball.
Albert Ellis
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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.
Albert Ellis
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And just as two wrongs don't make a right, rage against offenders is probably the worst way to try to correct them.
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As a matter of fact, 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.
Albert Ellis
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To err is human to forgive people and yourself for poor behavior is to be sensible and realistic.
Albert Ellis