Quotes from Allen Carr

We think of stopping smoking as something that is very difficult to do. What do we need when we have something difficult to do? We need our little friend. So stopping smoking appears to be a double blow. Not only do we have a difficult task to perform, which is hard enough, but the crutch on which we normally rely on such occasions is no longer available.

If you were in control of your smoking, you wouldn't be reading this book. If you could simply choose whether to smoke or not, you would choose to be a nonsmoker.

To me this is the most tragic part of this whole business. How hard we worked to become hooked, and this is why it is difficult to stop teenagers. Because they are still learning to smoke, because they still find cigarettes distasteful, they believe they can stop whenever they want to. Why do they not learn from us?

Just one cigarette' is a myth you must get out of your mind.

Client: "Could you teach me to have an occasional drink and not get hooked again?" Me: "Of course I could. I could even teach you to take the occasional dose of arsenic." Client: "Why on earth would I want you to do that?" Me: "Exactly!

If you haven't got your health you haven't got anything' but it's true. I used to think that physical fitness fanatics were a pain. I used to claim that there was more to life than feeling fit: like booze and smokes.

The effect of the brainwashing is that we tend to think like the man who, having fallen off a 100-story building is heard to say as he passes the fiftieth floor, 'So far, so good!

It's a powerful poison and will shorten your life considerably. It is also highly addictive, will debilitate your immune system and impede your concentration. It will systematically destroy your nervous system, your confidence, your courage and your ability to relax. By the way, it tastes awful and will cost you about £100,000/$160,000 in your lifetime. What does it do for you? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

the only pleasure or crutch that smokers receive when they light up, is trying to get back to the level of peace and tranquillity that non-smokers experience the whole of their lives, and that since each cigarette, far from relieving the withdrawal pangs from nicotine, is actually causing them, even that pleasure or crutch is illusory.

To quit successfully, you need to focus on what the cigarette is doing for you. Once you understand you're not making a sacrifice, you're well on your way to freedom.

Having made what you know to be the correct decision, NEVER EVER question that decision.

SUMMARY • Nicotine is the addictive poison which hooks you. It's the No.1 killer. • Smokers go on smoking despite all the obvious disadvantages because they're in a trap. • Nicotine addiction is what keeps smokers smoking. It's a disease. • You are not in control of your smoking. The cigarette controls you. CHAPTER 2

Most of our smoking is done without thinking.

Living with an alcohol problem is just like living with an abusive partner. It leaves you physically battered, destroys your confidence and self-esteem, yet makes you feel perversely dependent on your abuser. The only difference is that you can walk out on drink any time you like and no one will try to stop you.

I would like you to pause for a moment, and to record your own feelings about smoking: what you think it does for you, why you smoke and why you want to

I know that heroin will do absolutely nothing for me and that I neither need nor want it, and I don't have to keep telling myself that.

Being a smoker can never get better, only worse.

Knowledge is not necessarily enough to beat the nicotine trap.

The odds of me living until I'm a hundred are slim to none, but I'll try, and I'll enjoy every precious moment.

unravel the brainwashing and follow your instincts.

All addictive drugs have this effect on their victims. The more they drag you down (and I'm not talking about the physical effects; those we can see clearly), the more they destroy your courage and confidence, and the greater your need for your illusory friend and support.

A bit of emptiness is actually very good for you. It leaves room for your imagination to flourish, ideas to hatch, or simply for your brain to rest. Without emptiness, your ability to be creative is severely diminished. Smartphones may be the work of some highly creative minds, but they are destroying creativity in their users.

Because they don't understand smoking or smokers and have no idea how to make it easy to quit, their attitude is: 'Try this method. If it doesn't work try another.

Todas las razones para dejar de fumar, hacen que sea más difícil dejarlo por otras dos razones. Primero mero, porque provocan una sensación de sacrificio. Siempre pensamos que nos están obligando a sacrificar a nuestro pequeño amigo, o apoyo, o vicio, o placer, o como quieras llamarlo