Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowleywas an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion and philosophy of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionReligious Leader
Date of Birth12 October 1875
Aleister Crowley quotes about
absence collection complete talents virtues wholly
In the absence of will-power the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless.
arms corpse danced drank found night slept
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.
intolerance evidence fetish
Intolerance is evidence of impotence.
conquer prestige death-and-dying
We must conquer life by living it to the full, and then we can go to meet death with a certain prestige.
fake-people fear children
Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.
passion evil unity
The greatest, like Rembrandt, paint a gallant, a hag, and a carcass with equal passion and rapture; they love the truth as it is. They do not admit that anything can be ugly or evil; its existence justifies itself. This is because they know themselves to be part of an harmonious unity; to disdain any item of it would be to blaspheme the whole. The Thelemite is able to revel in any experience soever; in each he recognizes the tokens of ultimate Truth. It is surely obvious, even intellectually, that all phenomena are interdependent, and therefore involve each other.
independent greatness people
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.
thee capacity all-things
Since all things are God, in all things thou seest just so much of God as thy capacity affordeth thee.
diversity unity form
Unspeakable is the variety of form and immeasurable the diversity of beauty, but in all is the seal of unity.
genius alternatives opinion
I am certainly of opinion that genius can be acquired, or, in the alternative, that it is an almost universal possession.
names holy-grail quests
The Quest of the Holy Grail, the Search for the Stone of the Philosophers-by whatever name we choose to call the Great Work-is therefore endless. Success only opens up new avenues of brilliant possibility.
integrity ambition agamemnon
The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.
aversion sickness shame
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.
who-we-are remember increase
Every incarnation that we remember must increase our comprehension of ourselves as who we are.