Aleister Crowley

I have never grown out of the infantile belief that the universe was made for me to suck.

— Aleister Crowley

“If Osiris, Christ, and Mahomet were mad, then indeed is madness the key to the door of the Temple.”

— Aleister Crowley

The best models of English writing are Shakespeare and the Old Testament.

— Aleister Crowley

“There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. Love is the law, love under will.”

— Aleister Crowley

Don't talk for five minutes, there's a good chap! I've a strange feeling come over me--almost as if I were going to…

— Aleister Crowley

He shall fall down into a pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of reason.

— Aleister Crowley

It is necessary, in this world, to be made of harder stuff than one's environment.

— Aleister Crowley

I am certainly of opinion that genius can be acquired, or, in the alternative, that it is an almost universal possession.

— Aleister Crowley

Further, an excess of legislation defeats its own ends. It makes the whole population criminals, and turns them all into police and…

— Aleister Crowley

There are no "standards of Right". Ethics is balderdash. Each Star must go on its own orbit. To hell with "moral principle";…

— Aleister Crowley

Man has the right . . . to play as he will . . . to think what he will: to speak…

— Aleister Crowley

To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely…

— Aleister Crowley

There are hardly half a dozen writers in England today who have not sold out to the enemy. Even when their good…

— Aleister Crowley

“The technical developments of almost every form of wealth [e.g., oil, minerals] are the forebears of Big Business; and Big Business, directly…

— Aleister Crowley

All phenomena of which we are aware take place in our own minds, and therefore the only thing we have to look…

— Aleister Crowley

“Chaos is Peace… Blackness, blackness intolerable, before the beginning of the light. This is the first verse of Genesis. Holy art thou,…

— Aleister Crowley

What is it in absinthe that makes it a separate cult? The effects of its abuse are totally distinct from those of…

— Aleister Crowley

“The fact is that very few of us know what words mean; fewer still take the trouble to enquire. We calmly, we…

— Aleister Crowley

“We even, at the worst, reach the state for which Buddhism, in the East presents most ably the case: as in the…

— Aleister Crowley

The 'lords of the earth' are those who are doing their Will. It does not necessarily mean people with coronets and automobiles;…

— Aleister Crowley

“For true Magick means "to employ one set of natural forces at a mechanical advantage as against another set"—I quote, as closely…

— Aleister Crowley

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

— Aleister Crowley

The greatest, like Rembrandt, paint a gallant, a hag, and a carcass with equal passion and rapture; they love the truth as…

— Aleister Crowley

One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, 'who' one is, 'what' one is, 'why' one is... Being thus…

— Aleister Crowley

Tell the truth, but lead so improbable a life that the truth will never be believed.

— Aleister Crowley

You can only accomplish your object in life by complete disregard of the opinions of other people.

— Aleister Crowley

A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.

— Aleister Crowley

I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is THELEMA .

— Aleister Crowley

Must not understanding lie open unto wisdom as the pyramids lie open to the stars? (6:2)

— Aleister Crowley

Alas the Master; so he sinks in death. But whoso knows the mystery of man Sees life and death as curves of…

— Aleister Crowley

Religion itself becomes offensively monotonous. On every point of vantage are pagodas -- stupid stalagmites of stagnant piety.

— Aleister Crowley

“A man friends are more capable of working him harm than strangers; and his greatest danger lies in his own habits.”

— Aleister Crowley

A white male child of perfect innocence and intelligence makes the most suitable victim.

— Aleister Crowley

“...the true test of the perversity of a pleasure is that it occupies a disproportionate amount of the attention.”

— Aleister Crowley

The old spelling MAGICK has been adopted throughout in order to distinguish the Science of the Magi from all its counterfeits.

— Aleister Crowley

“A red rose absorbs all colors but red; red is therefore the one color that it is not.”

— Aleister Crowley

I'm a poet, and I like my lies the way my mother used to make them.

— Aleister Crowley

“Light illuminates the path of humanity: it is our own fault if we go over the brink.”

— Aleister Crowley

May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early!

— Aleister Crowley

In the absence of willpower the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless.

— Aleister Crowley