Quote

We teach people that they upset themselves. We can't change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today.

Albert Ellis

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
People
Upset
Teach
Feeling
Feelings
Past
Change
Today
Thinking
Behaving

More quotes by Albert Ellis

Image
When people change their irrational beliefs to undogmatic flexible preferences, they become less disturbed.
Albert Ellis
Image
Lack of forgiveness of others breeds lack of self-forgiveness.
Albert Ellis
Image
Even when people act nastily to you, don't condemn them or retaliate.
Albert Ellis
Image
Much of what we call emotion is nothing more or less than a certain kind - a biased, prejudiced, or strongly evaluative kind - of thought.
Albert Ellis
Image
The more sinful and guilty a person tends to feel, the less chance there is that he will be a happy, healthy, or law-abiding citizen. He will become a compulsive wrong-doer.
Albert Ellis
Image
If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they'll kill themselves laughing.
Albert Ellis
Image
I hope to die in the saddle seat.
Albert Ellis
Image
Worrying about dying will hardly help you live.
Albert Ellis
Image
I started to call myself a rational therapist in January 1955 later I used the term rational emotive. Now I call myself a rational emotive behavior therapist. But from the start, I always included philosophic techniques as well as experiential, emotional and behavioral techniques.
Albert Ellis
Image
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.
Albert Ellis
Image
I think it's unfair, but they have the right as fallible, screwed-up humans to be unfair that's the human condition.
Albert Ellis
Image
The individual is taught that there is nothing that he as a total person is to feel ashamed of or self-hating for.
Albert Ellis
Image
Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth.
Albert Ellis
Image
Convince yourself that worrying about many situations will make them worse rather than improve them.
Albert Ellis
Image
People and things do not upset us. Rather, we upset ourselves by believing that they can upset us.
Albert Ellis
Image
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
Image
For that again, is what all manner of religion essentially is: childish dependency.
Albert Ellis
Image
The attitude of unconditional self-acceptance is probably the most important variable in their long-term recovery.
Albert Ellis
Image
Strong feelings are fine it's the overreactions that mess us up.
Albert Ellis
Image
I teach people to be flexible, scientific and logical in their thinking and therefore to be less prone to brainwashing by the therapist.
Albert Ellis