Aleister Crowley quotes

To the eyes of a god, mankind must appear as a species of bacteria which multiply and become progressively virulent whenever they find themselves in a congenial culture, and whose activity diminishes until they disappear completely as soon as proper measures are taken to sterilize them.

Aleister Crowley

To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind, or, if not, should never be published at all. A message from the gods should be delivered at once. It is damnably blasphemous to talk about the autumn season and so on. How dare the author or publisher demand a price for doing his duty, the highest and most honorable to which a man can be called?

Aleister Crowley

If one were to take the bible seriously one would go mad. But to take the bible seriously, one must be already mad.

Aleister Crowley

Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales.

Aleister Crowley

The supreme satisfaction is to be able to despise one's neighbor and this fact goes far to account for religious intolerance. It is evidently consoling to reflect that the people next door are headed for hell.

Aleister Crowley

To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind, or, if not, should never be published at all.

Aleister Crowley

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Aleister Crowley

Existence, as we know it, is full of sorrow. To mention only one minor point every man is a condemned criminal, only he does not know the date of his execution. This is unpleasant for every man. Consequently every man does everything possible to postpone the date, and would sacrifice anything that he has if he could reverse the sentence. Practically all religions and all philosophies have started thus crudely, by promising their adherents some such reward as immortality. No religion has failed hitherto by not promising enough the present breaking up of all religions is due to the fact that people have asked.

Aleister Crowley

The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without. Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become 'one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions': a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the Rebel, we now have a Devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have, Greatness.

Aleister Crowley

Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness.

Aleister Crowley

For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

Aleister Crowley

Paganism is wholesome because it faces the facts of life.

Aleister Crowley

Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.

Aleister Crowley

There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Or, in the language of Mysticism,
Union with God.

Aleister Crowley

Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.

Aleister Crowley

The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and menacing.

Aleister Crowley

The joy of life consists in the exercise of one's energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.

Aleister Crowley

I was asked to memorize what I did not understand. And, my memory being so good, it refused to be insulted in that manner.

Aleister Crowley

The people who have really made history are the martyrs.

Aleister Crowley

It sometimes strikes me that the whole of science is a piece of impudence. That nature can afford to ignore our impertinent interference. If our monkey mischief should ever reach the point of blowing up the earth by decomposing an atom, and even annihilated the sun himself,
I cannot really suppose that the universe would turn a hair.

Aleister Crowley

Roughly speaking, any man with energy and enthusiasm ought to be able to bring at least a dozen others round to his opinion in the course of a year no matter how absurd that opinion might be. We see every day in politics, in business, in social life, large masses of people brought to embrace the most revolutionary ideas, sometimes within a few days. It is all a question of getting hold of them in the right way and working on their weak points.

Aleister Crowley