Albert Ellis Quotes

I agree with no one's opinion. I have some of my own.

I hate the idea of always having to interpret other people's ideas and thoughts and words, because I'm very independent and, I guess, a free thinker.

I always feel like I want to do my career my own way. I never follow anybody's path, what they've done.

Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society…

Any man who is really a man must learn to be alone in the midst of others, to think alone for others, and, if necessary, against others.

I think it's very desirable to be an individual and a free thinker.

Don't follow leaders.

Do not crave to know the views of others, nor base your intent thereon. To think independently for yourself is a sign of fearlessness.

Question authority; think for yourself. Talk to people, do things unrelated to school - to come up with your own framework for living. The world is too complex and people are too different to be overly prescriptive about the details.

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves - and be free.

Think your own thoughts.

In a society that tries to standardize thinking, individuality is not highly prized.

The supreme lesson of any education should be to think for yourself and to be yourself; absent this attainment, education creates dangerous, stupefying conformity.

I don't believe in other people's ideas. I have my own ideas.

I never follow anybody's path, what they've done.

I'm very much a person of free thought.

I could never understand the herd mentality. I have always fought to do things my way and have stuck to that.

I don't like following in people's footsteps; I like making my own trail.

I've never been a 'yes person.'

Take the risk of thinking for yourself

I rarely do things based on what everybody else is doing; I never have.

You should aim to be independent of any one vote, of any one fashion, of any one century.

I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.

The man assumes the role of the loner, the thinker and the searching spirit who calls the privileged and the powerful to task. The power of one was the courage to remain separate, th think through the truth and not be beguiled by convention or the plausible arguments of those who expect to maintain power, whatever the cost.