I get people to truly accept themselves unconditionally, whether or not their therapist or anyone loves them.

I started to call myself a rational therapist in 1955; later I used the term rational emotive. Now I call myself a rational emotive behavior therapist.

I had a great many sex and love cases where people were absolutely devastated when somebody with whom they were compulsively in love didn't love them back. They were killing themselves with anxiety and depression.

People don't just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness.

We teach people that they upset themselves. We can't change the past, so we change how people are thinking, feeling and behaving today.

People got insights into what was bothering them, but they hardly did a damn thing to change.