Aleister Crowley Quotes
October 12, 1875 – December 1, 1947
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I was in the death struggle with self: God and Satan fought for my soul those three long hours. God conquered now I have only one doubt left which of the twain was God?
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More Aleister Crowley Quotes
I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I drank and danced all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in the morning.
Aleister Crowley— Aleister Crowley, The Book of Lies (1912)
I am inclined to agree with the Head Master of Eton that pæderastic passions among schoolboys 'do no harm'; further, I think them the only redeeming feature of sexual life at public schools.
Aleister Crowley— "Energized Enthusiasm : A Note On Theurgy" in The Equinox Vol. 1 no. 9 (Spring 1913)
The best models of English writing are Shakespeare and the Old Testament, especially the book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. ... In writing English the most important quality that you can acquire is style. It makes all the difference to anyone who reads what you write, whether you use the best phrases in the best way.
Aleister Crowley— First and only letter to his son Aleister Ataturk (May 1947), as quoted in Do What Thou Wilt : A Life of Aleister Crowley (2000) by Lawrence Sutin, p. 416
Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign? So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.
Aleister Crowley— I:26 (The Book of the Law (1904))
I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
Aleister Crowley— I:29 (The Book of the Law (1904))
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Aleister Crowley— I:40 This famous statement derives from several historic precedents, including that of François Rabelais in describing the rule of his Abbey of Thélème in Gargantua and Pantagruel: Fait ce que vouldras (Do what thou wilt), which was later used by the Hellfire Club established by Sir Francis Dashwood. It is also similar to the Wiccan proverb: An ye harm none, do what thou wilt; but the oldest known statement of a similar assertion is that of St. Augustine of Hippo: Love, and do what thou wilt.
Love is the law, love under will.
Aleister Crowley— I:57 (The Book of the Law (1904))
I am alone. There is no God where I am.
Aleister Crowley— II:23 (The Book of the Law (1904))
Now a curse upon Because and his kin! May Because be accursed for ever!
Aleister Crowley— II:28-29 (The Book of the Law (1904))
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Aleister Crowley— III:60 (The Book of the Law (1904))
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— Ch. 1 : The Principles of Ritual
The first task of the Magician in every ceremony is therefore to render his Circle absolutely impregnable.
Aleister Crowley— Ch. 13 : Of the Banishings and of the Purifications
Acts which are essentially dishonourable must not be done; they would be justified only by calm contemplation of their correctness in abstract cases.
Aleister Crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
Love is a virtue; it grows stronger and purer and less selfish by applying it to what it loathes; but theft is a vice involving the slave-idea that one's neighbor is superior to oneself.
Aleister Crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
Crime, folly, sickness and all phenomena must be contemplated with complete freedom from fear aversion or shame. Otherwise we shall fail to see accurately, and interpret intelligently; in which case we shall be unable to outwit and outfight them.
Aleister Crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
The Magician must be wary in his use of his powers; he must make every act not only accord with his Will, but with the properties of his position at the time. It might be my Will to reach the foot of a cliff; but the easiest way also the speediest, most direct least obstructed, the way of minimum effort would be simply to jump. I should have destroyed my Will in the act of fulfilling it, or what I mistook for it; for the True Will has no goal; its nature being To Go.
Aleister Crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of the other; intimacy exacts fitness. He therefore who liveth by air, let him not be bold to breathe water. But mastery cometh by measure: to him who with labour, courage, and caution giveth his life to understand all that doth encompass him, and to prevail against it, shall be increase. "The word of Sin is Restriction": seek therefore Righteousness, enquiring into Iniquity, and fortify thyself to overcome it.
Aleister Crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is THELEMA .
Aleister Crowley— III Of the Ceremony of the Introit, "Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church"
There is no part of me that is not of the gods!
Aleister Crowley— VIII : Of the Mystic Marriage and Consummation of the Elements
I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.
Aleister Crowley— 45 : Chinese Music
Adaptation to one's environment makes for a sort of survival; but after all, the supreme victory is only won by those who prove themselves of so much hardier stuff than the rest that no power on earth is able to destroy them. The people who have really made history are the martyrs.
Aleister Crowley— Ch. 4 (Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929))
As long as sexual relations are complicated by religious, social and financial considerations, so long will they cause all kinds of cowardly, dishonourable and disgusting behaviour.
Aleister Crowley— Ch. 7 (Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929))
The conscience of the world is so guilty that it always assumes that people who investigate heresies must be heretics; just as if a doctor who studies leprosy must be a leper. Indeed, it is only recently that science has been allowed to study anything without reproach.
Aleister Crowley— Ch. 17 (Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929))
As soon as you put men together, they somehow sink, corporatively, below the level of the worst of the individuals composing it. Collect scholars on a club committee, or men of science on a jury; all their virtues vanish, and their vices pop out, reinforced by the self-confidence which the power of numbers is bound to bestow.
Aleister Crowley— Ch LXXIII (Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929))
How right politicians are to look upon their constituents as cattle! Anyone who has any experience of dealing with any class as such knows the futility of appealing to intelligence, indeed to any other qualities than those of brutes.
Aleister Crowley— Ch LXXIII (Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929))
Toronto as a city carries out the idea of Canada as a country. It is a calculated crime against the aspirations of the soul and the affection of the heart.
Aleister Crowley— Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1970)
I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning.
Aleister Crowley— Aleister Crowley, The Book of Lies (1913)
