Anton Szandor LaVey famous quotes

Be as a lion in the path. Be dangerous even in defeat.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Lions #Path #Defeat

Stupidity—The top of the list for Satanic Sins. The Cardinal Sin of Satanism. It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful. Ignorance is one thing, but our society thrives increasingly on stupidity. It depends on people going along with whatever they are told. The media promotes a cultivated stupidity as a posture that is not only acceptable but laudable. Satanists must learn to see through the tricks and cannot afford to be stupid.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Stupid #Ignorance #Media

To be loved, feelings must be rationed. To love, the doors of hysteria, fantasy, and madness may be flung open.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Doors #Hysteria #Feelings

Behold the crucifix; what does it symbolize? Pallid incompetence hanging on a tree.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Tree #Doe #Hanging On

I dont crave companionship. It stands in my way. I live for pleasure. There are few persons who can give me as much pleasure as those acts I perform myself. I would rather create pleasure according to my own whim than be subjected to the whims of others.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Giving #Way #Companionship

Hair on a man's chest is thought to denote strength. The gorilla is the most powerful of bipeds and has hair on every place on his body except for his chest.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Powerful #Men #Hair

There are television sets in every home, every restaurant, every hotel room, every shopping mall-now they’re even small enough to carry in your pocket like electronic rosaries. It is an unquestioned part of everyday life. Kneeling before the cathode ray God, with our TV Guide concordance in hand, we maintain the illusion of choice by flipping channels (chapters and verses). It doesn’t matter what is flashing on the screen-all that’s important is that the TV stays on.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Home #Hands #Shopping

There is no heaven of glory bright, and no hell where sinners roast. Here and now is our day of torment! Here and now is our day of joy! Here and now is our opportunity! Choose ye this day, this hour, for no redeemer liveth!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Opportunity #Joy #Heaven

The real satanist is not quite so easily recognized as such
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Real #Satanist

When a Satanist commits a wrong, he realizes that is it natural to make a mistake―and if he is truly sorry about what he has done, he will learn from it and take care not to do the same thing again. If he is not honestly sorry about what he has done, and knows he will do the same thing over and over, he has no business confessing and asking forgiveness in the first place.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Sorry #Mistake #Firsts

Love is one of the most intense feelings felt by man; another is hate. Forcing yourself to feel indiscriminate love is very unnatural. If you try to love everyone you only lessen your feelings for those who deserve your love. Repressed hatred can lead to many physical and emotional aliments. By learning to release your hatred towards those who deserve it, you cleanse yourself of these malignant emotions and need not take your pent-up hatred out on your loved ones.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Hate #Love Is #Men

The only thing Christianity ever contributed to Satanism was the name
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Names #Christianity #Satanism

Blessed are the destroyers of false hope, for they are the true Messiahs - Cursed are the god-adorers, for they shall be shorn sheep!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Blessed #Sheep #False Hope

Satanism encourages its followers to indulge in their natural desires. Only by doing so can you be a completely satisfied person with no frustrations which can be harmful to yourself and others around you. Therefore, the most simplified description of the Satanic belief is: INDULGENCE INSTEAD OF ABSTINENCE
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Frustration #Desire #Satanic

There are many who would like my time. I shun them. There are some who share my time. I am entertained by them. There are precious few who contribute to my time. I cherish them.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Cherish #Share

I break away from all conventions that do not lead to my earthly success and happiness.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Break #Conventions

Man prides himself on being the only animal who can modify his nature, yet when he chooses to do so he is called a phony.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Pride #Men #Animal

Satanism advocates practicing a modified form of the Golden Rule. Our interpretation of this rule is: "Do unto others as they do unto you"; because if you "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and they, in turn, treat you badly, it goes against human nature to continue to treat them with consideration. You should do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but if your courtesy is not returned, they should be treated with the wrath they deserve.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Wrath #Golden #Human Nature

There is nothing inherently sacred about moral codes. Like the wooden idols of long ago, they are the work of human hands, and what man has made, man can destroy!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Men #Hands #Idols

You cannot love everyone; it is ridiculous to think you can.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Thinking #Ridiculous

Don't let that little pyramid with the bright eye fool you. That's to draw your attention away from the real thing: the big trapezoid beneath it.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Real #Eye #Pyramids

It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Silly #Cynical #Stupidity

Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Years #Church #Satan

If you're going to be a sinner, be the best sinner on the block.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Block #Being The Best #Sinner

The person who takes every opportunity to "pick on" others is often mistakenly called "sadistic". In reality, this person is a misdirected ***** who is working towards his own destruction. The reason a person viciously strikes out against you is because they are afraid of you or what you represent, or are resentful of your happiness. They are weak, insecure, and on extremely shaky ground when you throw your curse, and they make ideal human sacrifices.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Insecure #Sacrifice #Opportunity

When one sleeps on the floor one need not worry about falling out of bed.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Fall #Sleep #Worry

I thought, acted, and thereupon found myself removed.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Found

If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Guests #Annoying #Mercy

I've always been timid. I wait for the mating signal, yet I want to show my interest, but I'm too ***** bashful to go for it! I have no sympathy for wolves. Why can't a man wait and see if there is any interest in them? Every woman wants to be pursued, it's a courting dance, a mating game and it should be that way, played out. The world is full of creeps.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Men #Games #Waiting

The ideal woman to me would be the gun-toting moll. Someone who is true blue and ready to face the world. Open to ideas and suggestion, not stubborn and closed minded.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Gun #Blue #Ideas

I visualize the day that tridents and pentagrams are thrust into the sky from church roofs instead of crosses.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Sky #Church #Crosses

Most of the interesting people I've ever met have been deviant in one form or another.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#People #Interesting #Form

If a person wants to be hurt and enjoys suffering, then there is no reason not to indulge him in his wont.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Hurt #Suffering #Want

Those who spell Magic with a K aren't.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Magic

Unfortunately for a multitude of occultists, humor is a rare ingredient in their lives. In fact it is their very lack of humor that has impelled them into the arcane and esoteric.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Esoteric #Ingredients #Facts

Don't waste your time with people who will ultimately destroy you, but concentrate instead on those who will appreciate your responsibility to them, and, likewise, feel responsible to you.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Responsibility #People #Appreciate

When ghettos become the mainstream of society, islands of individuality cannot help but harbor an elite.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Ghetto #Islands #Individuality

Martin Luther dreamed up Protestantism while sitting on the toilet at Wittenburg monastery, and we know what a big movement that became.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Sitting #Movement #Toilets

The other exception to the rule regards dealings with masochists. A ***** derives pleasure from being hurt; so denying the ***** his pleasure through-pain hurts him just as much as actual physical pain hurts the non masochist. The story of the truly cruel ***** illustrates this point: The ***** says to the sadist, "beat me." To which the merciless ***** replies, "NO!" If a person wants to be hurt and enjoys suffering, then there is no reason not to indulge him in his wont.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Hurt #Pain #Suffering

Many of you already read my writings indicating that TV is the new god. There is a little thing I neglected to mention up until now, television is the major mainstream infiltration for the new satanic religion.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Writing #Satanic #Television

Satanism represents a form of controlled selfishness.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Selfishness #Satanism #Form

You cannot love everyone; it is ridiculous to think you can. If you love everyone and everything you lose your natural powers of selection and wind up being a pretty poor judge of character and quality. If anything is used too freely it loses its true meaning. Therefore, the Satanist believes you should love strongly and completely those who deserve your love, but never turn the other cheek to your enemy!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Believe #Character #Thinking

Magic is never totally scientifically explainable, but science has always been, at one time or another, considered magic.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Magic

Since man's natural instincts lead him to sin, all men are sinners; and all sinners go to hell. If everyone goes to hell, then you will meet all your friends there.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Men #Sin #Hell

There is no heaven, there is no hell, except here on Earth.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Heaven #Earth #Hell

It has been said, 'the truth will make men free.' The truth alone has never made anyone free. It is only doubt which will bring mental emancipation.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Truth #Men #Doubt

To the Maker the archetype, the self-sustainer, human interaction is usually a waste of the most precious thing in his vital existance: time.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Self #Waste #Makers

What good are friends if they cant do you any good?
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

In order to perform the supernatural, you must first be able to accomplish the supernormal.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Order #Able #Firsts

Satanism is not a white light religion; it is a religion of the flesh, the mundane, the carnal - all of which are ruled by Satan, the personification of the Left Hand Path.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Light #Hands #White

I find greater companionship in inert figures, animals & speechless artifacts, for I can enjoy their presence & there is no psychic drain
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Animal #Psychics #Companionship

Yeah, well, I'm crazy, but I'm not stupid, hopefully. And I think we're all a bit crazy if we do anything that's deviant. I've studied a great deal on deviance and aberrant behavior. Most of the interesting people I've ever met have been deviant in one form or another.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Stupid #Crazy #Thinking

It's a cinch that if you read it in an occult periodical or paperback, everyone's doing it. That should be your cue to avoid such stuff, lest you be relegated to the same readership level.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Levels #Stuff #Should

We are so inculcated with guilt that we think that weakness is a sin or that it is some crime against nature to be submissive.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Thinking #Guilt #Weakness

I request reason for your golden rule and ask the why and wherefore of your ten commandments.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Golden #Reason #Request

Satanists are encouraged to indulge in the seven deadly sins, as they need hurt no one; they were only invented by the Christian Church to insure guilt on the part of its followers.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Christian #Hurt #Guilt

Life is the great indulgence - death the great abstinence. Therefore, make the most of life here and now!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Anarchy #Life Is #Abstinence

The Atheist complains about the wind. The Christian prays for it to change. The Satanist adjusts his sails.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Christian #Atheist #Wind

Before none of your printed idols do I bend in acquiescence, and he who saith thou shalt to me is my mortal foe!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Idols #Acquiescence #Foe

Mysterious beings we seek from birth; what does that mean to me? Something we seek, and as we age it becomes more elusive, yet our spirit remains willing, but our flesh grows weak.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Mean #Age #Doe

Definition of Good and Evil: Good is what you like. Evil is what you don't like.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Evil #Definitions #Good And Evil

The truth alone has never set anyone free. It is only DOUBT which will bring about mental emancipation. Without the wonderful element of doubt, the doorway through which truth passes would be tightly shut, impervious to the strenuous poundings of a thousand Lucifer's.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Doubt #Would Be #Elements

The seven deadly sins of the Christian Church are: greed, pride, envy, anger, gluttony, lust, and sloth. Satanism advocates indulging in each of these 'sins' as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Christian #Pride #Emotional

How could you set yourself up as the most powerful institution on earth? You first find out what every man feels at least once a day, establish that as a sin, and set yourself up as the only institution capable of pardoning that sin.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Powerful #Men #Earth

Anyone without a sense of humor is too pretentious to be a good magician.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Sense Of Humor #Pretentious #Magician

The devils of past religions have always, at least in part, had animal characteristics, evidence of man's constant need to deny that he too is an animal, for to do so would serve a mighty blow to his impoverished ego.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Animal #Blow #Past

Self-deceit—It’s in the “Nine Satanic Statements” but deserves to be repeated here. Another cardinal sin. We must not pay homage to any of the sacred cows presented to us, including the roles we are expected to play ourselves. The only time self-deceit should be entered into is when it’s fun, and with awareness. But then, it’s not self-deceit!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Fun #Self #Play

When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Doe #Territory #Bother

ALL religions of a spiritual nature are inventions of man. He has created an entire system of gods with nothing more than his carnal brain. Just because he has an ego, and cannot accept it, he has to externalize it into some great spiritual device which he calls God.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Spiritual #Men #Ego

The Satanist realizes that man, and the action and reaction of the universe, is responsible for everything, and doesn't mislead himself into thinking that someone cares.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Men #Thinking #Care

A Satanist practices the motto, If a man smite thee on one cheek, smash him on the other! Let no wrong go unredressed.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Men #Practice #Motto

On Saturday night, I would see men ***** after half-naked girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing organ for tent-show evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive them and purge them of carnal desires. And the next Saturday they'd be back at the carnival or some other place of indulgence. I knew then that the Christian church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man's carnal nature will out no matter how much it is purged or scoured by any white-light religion.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Girl #Christian #Morning

Why should I not hate mine enemies―if I "love" them does that not place me at their mercy?
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Hate #Enemy #Doe

There is a beast in man that should be exercised, not exorcised.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Men #Beast #Should

Good news is only really good to those directly involved. Most people lead such futile and useless lives that only bad news makes them feel better. If not better, certainly gooder. If one cannot gain recognition for anything else, he can rest well with the assurance that he is "good", which in most case equates with "right".
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Feel Better #People #News

I'm glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Christian #Children #Night

Every religion in the world that has destroyed people is based on love
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#People #World

Satanism represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Kindness #Ingrates #Satanism

Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence! Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams! Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit! Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Spiritual #Dream #Emotional

When other people ask me, 'What gives you the right to suggest standards for others?', my answer is, 'If I don't, someone else, perhaps less qualified, will.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#People #Giving #Answers

If real Satanism were allowed the kind of television time that Christianity has now, the kind of drawing out and patience that interviewers give sports figures, or the kind of coverage that a baseball game gets, Christianity would be completely eliminated in a few short months. If people were allowed to see the complete, unbiased truth, even for 60 minutes, it would be too dangerous. There would be no comparison.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Sports #Baseball #Real

My parents were lenient. My mother believed God was another word for nature. I took up Satanism not out of desperation, but out of logic. I rebelled, not but because of a religious or repressive childhood. I wanted to join the French Foreign Legion.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Mother #Religious #Childhood

The first time I read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, my instinctive reaction was, so what’s wrong with THAT?  Isn’t that the way any master plan should work?  Doesn’t the public deserve - nay, demand - such despotism?
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Zion #Demand #Way

I like raunchiness, not like in a biker-chick sort of a way, but like the girl can't help it. Little bruises, a few hairs out of place, a little stain here and there.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Girl #Hair #Bikers

I give people Ayn Rand with trappings,
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#People #Giving

A friend of mine who was a founding father of the Church of Satan, who later I compared notes with, said when he was a kid, he too managed to get into Sallys Nude Ranch, and in the corral he saw his Sunday school teacher!!! That was a real epiphany for him. From that moment on he was a Satanist.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Teacher #Father #Real

Do what you want as long as its paying off for you. But once its become a liability, then something is wrong and you better find out what it is.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Long #Want #What You Want

But the average person doesnt have that much imagination. They just want to be entertained. They want to have the tableau presented for them. They dont want to participate beyond a certain point. They want the safety of the herd, to be catered to, sit back and enjoy.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Average #Safety #Imagination

I knew then that the Christian Church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man's carnal nature will out!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Christian #Men #Hypocrisy

In this arid wilderness of steel and stone I raise up my voice that you may hear. To the East and to the West I beckon. To the North and to the South I show a sign proclaiming: Death to the weakling, wealth to the strong!
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Strong #Voice #East

Say unto thine own heart, 'I am mine own redeemer.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Heart

Religions are easy to invent. Most traditional religions have little or nothing to do with reality, are dependent on obfuscation, interpretation, guilt, and unreasoning faith...
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Reality #Guilt #Littles

Heaven must be populated with some rather strange creatures if all they lived for was to go to a place where they can strum harps for eternity.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Heaven #Strange #Eternity

Up is down, pleasure is pain, darkness is light, slavery is freedom, madness is sanity...
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Pain #Light #Darkness

I consider that a most ignoble endeavor. The only way I would like to 'help' the great majority of people is the same way Carl Panzram 'reformed' people who tried to reform him. It would be most merciful to help them by relieving them of the life they seem to hate so much. People should be happy I'm not a humanitarian-or I'd probably be the most diabolical mass murderer the world has ever known.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Hate #People #Majority

The TV set, or Satanic family altar, has grown more elaborate since the early 50s, from the tiny, fuzzy screen to huge ‘entertainment centers’ covering entire walls with several TV monitors. What started as an innocent respite from everyday life has become in itself a replacement for real life for millions, a major religion of the masses.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Wall #Real #Everyday

I feel that what is probably the greatest enemy of longevity is popularity, and most people die of popularity.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#People #Enemy #Popularity

The true test of anyone's worth as a living creature is how much he can utilize what he has.
-- Anton Szandor LaVey

#Tests #Creatures