Quotes about Thelema

Nothing could be more mistaken than the view that magick is based upon a misapprehension of the nature of the physical world in relation to human intellect.  As a social equilibrator it is essential that the magician have a comprehensive knowledge of the various planes whose interaction results in a comprehensive reality.  The primary function of the magician is the understanding and control of the basic forces of life and death as they manifest in change.  Thus it is necessary that the magician be free of the limitation of any particular point of view.  He will thus understand and utilize the scientific method, but he will also comprehend this as one force in the network of forces which constitute his field of culture.
-"Purpose and Object of Magick" in On Magick.

It has often been argued, in fact, that mankind lost the happiness characteristic of his fellow-animals when he acquired self-consciousness. This is in fact the meaning of the legend of "The Fall." We have become as gods, knowing good and evil, and the price is that we live by labour, and—"In his eyes foreknowledge of death."

Now since all tyrannies are based on dogmas, that is, on fundamental statements of absolute fact, and since all dogmas are based on lies, it behooves us first to seek for truth, and freedom will not be far away.  And the truth is that we know nothing.
Objectively, we know nothing at all.  Any system of intellectual thought, whether it be science, logic, religion, or philosophy, is based on certain fundamental ideas or axioms which are assumed, but which cannot be proved.  This is the grave of all positivism.

Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.

If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.

Every man and every woman is a star.