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 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
Every man and every woman is a star.
Aleister Crowley— I:3 (The Book of the Law (1904))
These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.
Aleister Crowley— I:11 (The Book of the Law (1904))
I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.
Aleister Crowley— I:13 (The Book of the Law (1904))
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))
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 splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as the sun of midnight is ever the son.
Aleister Crowley— III:74 (The Book of the Law (1904))
The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.
Aleister Crowley— III:75 (The Book of the Law (1904))
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. Love is the law, love under will.
Aleister Crowley— The Comment; This is a summary combination and restatement of the assertions of I:40 and I:57
The old spelling MAGICK has been adopted throughout in order to distinguish the Science of the Magi from all its counterfeits.
Aleister Crowley— Part II : Magick (1912)
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
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
A parabola is bound by one law which fixes its relations with two straight lines at every point; yet it has no end short of infinity, and it continually changes its direction. The Initiate who is aware Who he is can always check is conduct by reference to the determinants of his curve, and calculate his past, his future, his bearings, and his proper course at any assigned moment; he can even comprehend himself as a simple idea.
Aleister Crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
His own infinity becomes zero in relation to that of the least fragment of the solid. He hardly exists at all. Trillions multiplies by trillions of trillions of such as he could not cross the frontier even of breadth, the idea which he came to guess at only because he felt himself bound by some mysterious power.
Aleister Crowley— Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli
The discovery of radioactivity created a momentary chaos in chemistry and physics; but it soon led to a fuller interpretation of the old ideas. It dispersed many difficulties, harmonized many discords, and yea, more! It shewed the substance of Universe as a simplicity of Light and Life, manners to compose atoms, themselves capable of deeper self-realization through fresh complexities and organizations, each with its own peculiar powers and pleasures, each pursuing its path through the world where all things are possible.
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"
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))
Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.
Aleister Crowley— Ch. 49 (Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929))
Intolerance is evidence of impotence.
Aleister Crowley— Ch. 69 (Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929))
The customer is usually wrong; but statistics indicate that it doesn't pay to tell him so.
Aleister Crowley— Ch XXI (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))
