The joy of life consists in the exercise of one's energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.
Aleister CrowleyThis serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation.
Aleister CrowleyTell the truth, but lead so improbable a life that the truth will never be believed.
Aleister CrowleyInitiation means the Journey Inwards: nothing is changed or can be changed; but all is trulier understood with every step.
Aleister CrowleyYou must on no account attempt to use the squares given in the Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage until you have succeeded in the Operation. More, unless you mean to perform it, and are prepared to go to any length to do so, you are a fool to have the book in your possession at all. Those squares are liable to get loose and do things on their own initiative; and you won't like it.
Aleister CrowleyShe knew that she belonged to this man, body and soul. Every trace of shame departed; it was burnt out by the fire that consumed her. She gave him a thousand opportunities; she fought to turn his words to serious things. He baffled her with his shallow smile and ready tongue, that twisted all topics to triviality. By six o'clock she was morally on her knees before him; she was imploring him to stay to dinner with her. He refused.
Aleister CrowleyReligion itself becomes offensively monotonous. On every point of vantage are pagodas -- stupid stalagmites of stagnant piety.
Aleister CrowleyDestiny is an absolutely definite and inexorable ruler. Physical ability and moral determination count for nothing. It is impossible to perform the simplest act when the gods say no. I have no idea how they bring pressure to bear on such occasions; I only know that it is irresistible.
Aleister CrowleyThe 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 CrowleyI 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 CrowleyBlack magic is not a myth. It is a totally unscientific and emotional form of magic, but it does get results — of an extremely temporary nature.
Aleister CrowleyChinese civilisation is so systematic that wild animals have been abolished on principle.
Aleister CrowleyWhen you have proved that God is merely a name for the sex instinct, it appears to me not far to the perception that the sex instinct is God.
Aleister CrowleyTo me, every dirty act was simply a sacrament of sin, a passionately religious protest against Christianity, which was for me the symbol of all vileness, meanness, treachery, falsehood and oppression.
Aleister CrowleyScience is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness.
Aleister CrowleyThe two seem, at first glance, to be opposed, but when you have advanced a little in both, you find that concentration learned in Yoga is of immense use in attaining the mental powers necessary in Magick; on the other hand, the discipline of Magick is of the greatest service in Yoga.
Aleister CrowleyWe place no reliance On virgin or pigeon; Our Method is Science, Our Aim is Religion.
Aleister CrowleyThe True Will is thus both determined by its equations, and free because those equation are simply its own name, spelt out fully.
Aleister CrowleyEver man is eternally alone. But when you get mixed up with a fairly decent crowd, you forget that appalling fact for long enough to give your brain time to recover from the acute symptoms of its disease - that of thinking.
Aleister CrowleyI am certainly of opinion that genius can be acquired, or, in the alternative, that it is an almost universal possession.
Aleister CrowleyIf you examine the highest poetry in the light of common sense, you can only say that it is rubbish; and in actual fact you cannot so examine it at all, because there is something in poetry which is not in the words themselves, which is not in the images suggested by the words 'O windy star blown sideways up the sky!' True poetry is itself a magic spell which is a key to the ineffable.
Aleister Crowley