Aleister Crowley Quotes

A collection of quotes by Aleister Crowley.

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was an influential British occultist, writer, and mystic, often referred to as "the Great Beast." He gained notoriety for his unorthodox spiritual beliefs and practices, which he articulated in numerous books and writings. Born into a wealthy family in England, Crowley showed early intellectual brilliance and an interest in mysticism. He became deeply involved in various esoteric traditions, including Thelema, a religious and philosophical system he developed.

Crowley's philosophy centered around the idea that individuals should strive to discover and fulfill their true will. He believed that self-knowledge and spiritual exploration were key to this pursuit, advocating for rituals, meditation, and sexual practices as means to attain heightened consciousness and transcendence.

During his lifetime, Crowley attracted both devoted followers and vehement critics. His libertine and rebellious lifestyle, as well as controversial activities, often courted scandal and controversy. Despite this, he left an indelible mark on the occult world, inspiring many subsequent spiritual and countercultural movements.

Beyond his occult pursuits, Aleister Crowley was a talented writer, poet, and mountaineer. He penned numerous influential works, including "The Book of the Law," considered the foundational text of Thelema. His writings covered a wide range of topics, including magick, religion, astrology, and philosophy.

Aleister Crowley's legacy continues to captivate and polarize individuals interested in the occult, with his ideas and practices remaining influential to this day.

To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something wor

To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.

Aleister Crowley

The priestess of Artemis took hold of her almost with the vi

The priestess of Artemis took hold of her almost with the violence of a lover, and whisked her away into a languid ecstasy of reverie. She communicated her own enthusiasm to the girl, and kept her mind occupied with dreams, faery-fervid, of uncharted seas of glory on which her galleon might sail, undiscovered countries of spice and sweetness, Eldorado and Utopia and the City of God.

Aleister Crowley

Beauty Love Women Sensual

The old spelling MAGICK has been adopted throughout in order

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

Aleister Crowley

The conscience of the world is so guilty that it always assu

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

Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom a

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

Aleister Crowley

I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakenin

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

When one walks, one is brought into touch first of all with

When one walks, one is brought into touch first of all with the essential relations between one's physical powers and the character of the country; one is compelled to see it as its natives do. Then every man one meets is an individual. One is no longer regarded by the whole population as an unapproachable and uninteresting animal to be cheated and robbed.

Aleister Crowley

There are hardly half a dozen writers in England today who h

There are hardly half a dozen writers in England today who have not sold out to the enemy. Even when their good work has been a success, Mammon grips them and whispers: More money for more work.

Aleister Crowley

Authors & Writing

I have never grown out of the infantile belief that the univ

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

Aleister Crowley

I was asked to memorize what I did not understand; and, my m

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

They look for a victim to chivy, and howl him down, and fina

They look for a victim to chivy, and howl him down, and finally lynch him in a sheer storm of sexual frenzy which they honestly imagine to be moral indignation, patriotic passion or some equally allowable emotion, it may be an innocent Negro, a Jew like Leo Frank, a harmless half-witted German; a Christ-like idealist of the type of Debs, an enthusiastic reformer like Emma Goldman.

Aleister Crowley

If one had to worry about one's actions in respect of other

If one had to worry about one's actions in respect of other people's ideas, one might as well be buried alive in an antheap or married to an ambitious violinist. Whether that man is the prime minister, modifying his opinions to catch votes, or a bourgeois in terror lest some harmless act should be misunderstood and outrage some petty convention, that man is an inferior man and I do not want to have anything to do with him any more than I want to eat canned salmon.

Aleister Crowley

To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind; or, if n

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

Love stories are only fit for the solace of people in the in

Love stories are only fit for the solace of people in the insanity of puberty. No healthy adult human being can really care whether so-and-so does or does not succeed in satisfying his physiological uneasiness by the aid of some particular person or not.

Aleister Crowley

Roughly speaking, any man with energy and enthusiasm ought t

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

Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.

Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people.

Aleister Crowley

The supreme satisfaction is to be able to despise one's neig

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

It sometimes strikes me that the whole of science is a piece

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

The people who have really made history are the martyrs.

The people who have really made history are the martyrs.

Aleister Crowley

Martyrdom Martyr

The ordinary man looking at a mountain is like an illiterate

The ordinary man looking at a mountain is like an illiterate person confronted with a Greek manuscript.

Aleister Crowley