Unlocking the Mind: 200 Powerful Sigmund Freud Quotes offers a deep dive into the thoughts and ideas of one of the most influential figures in the field of psychology. Sigmund Freud’s quotes provide valuable insights into the complexities of the human mind, shedding light on topics such as dreams, desires, the unconscious, and the nature of human behavior. These quotes serve as a window into Freud’s groundbreaking theories and his unique perspective on the workings of the human psyche. Whether you are a psychology enthusiast or simply curious about the mysteries of the mind, this collection of 200 quotes is sure to fascinate and inspire.
Sigmund Freud Quotes
‘“Only a rebuke that ‘has something in it’ will sting, will have the power to stir our feelings, not the other sort, as we know.”’
‘ “Human megalomania will have suffered its third and most wounding blow from the psychological research of the present time which seeks to prove to the ego that it is not even master in its own house, but must content itself with scanty information of what is going on unconsciously in its mind.”’
‘“If one wishes to form a true estimate of the full grandeur of religion, one must keep in mind what it undertakes to do for men. It gives them information about the source and origin of the universe, it assures them of protection and final happiness, and it guides – by – precepts – backed by the full force of its authority.”’
‘“In this way the ego detaches itself from the external world. It is more correct to say: Originally the ego includes everything, later it detaches from itself the external world. The ego-feeling we are aware of now is thus only a shrunken vestige of a far more extensive feeling – a feeling which embraced the universe and expressed an inseparable connection of the ego with the external world.”’
‘“Alternatives are difficult to represent, and in some cases they are expressed by the division of the dream into two halves of equal length.”’
‘“The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest till it has gained a hearing. Finally, after a countless succession of rebuffs, it succeeds.”’
‘“The time comes when each of us has to give up as illusions the expectations which, in his youth, he pinned upon his fellow-men, and when he may learn how much difficulty and pain has been added to his life by their ill-will.”’
‘“We all still show too little respect for nature, which in Leonardo’s deep words recalling Hamlet’s speech “is full of infinite reasons which never appeared in experience.” Every one of us human beings corresponds to one of the infinite experiments in which these “reasons of nature” force themselves into experience.”’
‘“Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God.”’
‘“Dreams tell us many an unpleasant biological truth about ourselves and only very free minds can thrive on such a diet. Self-deception is a plant which withers fast in the pellucid atmosphere of dream investigation.”’
‘“Like the physical, the psychical is not necessarily in reality what it appears to us to be.”’
‘“There is an intellectual function in us which demands unity, connection and intelligibility from any material, whether of perception or thought, that comes within its grasp; and if, as a result of special circumstances, it is unable to establish a true connection, it does not hesitate to fabricate a false one.”’
‘“Most of the ‘pain’ we experience is of a perceptual order, perception either of the urge of unsatisfied instincts or of something in the external world which may be painful in itself or may arouse painful anticipations in the psychic apparatus and is recognised by it as ’danger.”’
‘“I consider it a good rule for letter-writing to leave unmentioned what the recipient already knows, and instead tell him something new.”’
‘“The wish to be able to fly is to be understood as nothing else than a longing to be capable of sexual performance.”’
‘“The genitals themselves have not undergone the development of the rest of the human form in the direction of beauty.”’
‘“We live in very remarkable times. We find with astonishment that progress has concluded an alliance with barbarism.”’
‘“We should picture the instrument that carries our mental functioning as resembling a compound microscope or photographic apparatus.”’
‘“We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from a state of things.”’
‘ “The idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the religious system.”’
‘“The psychic development of the individual is a short repetition of the course of development of the race.”’
‘“We must not allow ourselves to be deflected by the feminists who are anxious to force us to regard the two sexes as completely equal in position and worth.”’
‘“The weakness of my position does not imply a strengthening of yours.”’
‘“Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.”’
‘“Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis.”’
‘“Mans most disagreeable habits and idiosyncrasies, his deceit, his cowardice, his lack of reverence, are engendered by his incomplete adjustment to a complicated civilisation. It is the result of the conflict between our instincts and our culture.”’
‘“In the long run, nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is palpable.”’
‘“The defense against childish helplessness is what lends its characteristic features to the adult’s reaction to the helplessness which he has to acknowledge – a reaction which is precisely the formation of religion.”’
‘“The act of birth is the first experience of anxiety, and thus the source and prototype of the affect of anxiety.”’
‘“The intention that man should be happy is not in the plan of Creation.”’
‘“Neurosis is the result of a conflict between the ego and its id, whereas psychosis is the analogous outcome of a similar disturbance in the relation between the ego and the external world.”’
‘“No neurotic harbors thoughts of suicide which are not murderous impulses against others redirected upon himself.”’
‘“Sadism is all right in its place, but it should be directed to proper ends.”’
‘“The unconscious of one human being can react upon that of another without passing through the conscious.”’
‘“The doctor should be opaque to his patients and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him.”’
‘“Intelligence will be used in the service of the neurosis.”’
‘“The gods retain their threefold task: they must exorcize the terrors of nature, they must reconcile men to the cruelty of Fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for the sufferings and privations which a civilized life in common has imposed on them.”’
‘As a scientific rationalist, Freud distrusts the manifest content of dreams.”’
‘“Opposition is not necessarily enmity.”’
‘“I have an infamously low capacity for visualizing relationships, which made the study of geometry and all subjects derived from it impossible for me.”’
‘“Friendship is an art of keeping distance while love is an art of intimacy…”’
‘“I am going to the USA to catch sight of a wild porcupine and to give some lectures.”’
‘“Tobacco is the only excuse for Columbus’s misadventure in discovering America.”’
‘“The psychical, whatever its nature may be, is itself unconscious.”’
‘“Opposition is not necessarily enmity; it is merely misused and made an occasion for enmity.”’
‘“We are alone in confronting a different state of affairs; as we see it, there is a new kind of psychical material intervening between the content of the dream and the results of our reflections: the latent dream-content reached by our procedure, or the dream-thoughts. It is from this latent content, not the manifest, that we worked out the solution to the dream.”’
‘“Trying to be completely sincere with yourself is a good exercise.”’
‘“The state in which the ideas existed before being made conscious is called by us repression.”’
‘“To put it briefly, there are two widely diffused human characteristics which are responsible for the fact that the organization of culture can be maintained only by a certain measure of coercion: that is to say, men are not naturally fond of work, and arguments are of no avail against their passions.”’
‘“We are never so defensless against suffering as when we love.”’
‘“They love their delusions as they love themselves.”’
‘“The three major mother gods of the Eastern populations seemed to be generating and destroying entities at the same time; both goddesses of life and fertility as well as goddesses of death.”’
‘“Every one has wishes which he would not like to tell to others, which he does not want to admit even to himself.”’
‘“Places are often treated like persons.”’
‘“America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen, but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success.”’
‘“Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us O’er the world’s tempestuous sea; guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us, for we have no help but thee.”’
‘“Religious doctrines … are all illusions, they do not admit of proof, and no one can be compelled to consider them as true or to believe in them.”’
‘“Demons do not exist any more than gods do, being only the products of the psychic activity of man.”’
‘“No one who shares a delusion ever recognizes it as such.”’
‘“Where id is, there shall ego be.”’
‘“There is to my mind no doubt that the concept of beautiful had its roots in sexual excitation and that its original meaning was sexually stimulating.”’
‘“Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.”’
‘“Writing was in its origin, the voice of an absent person.”’
‘“I am actually not at all a man of science, not an observer, not an experimenter, not a thinker. I am by temperament nothing but a conquistador.”’
‘“It is not so much that man is a herd animal, but that he is a horde animal led by a chief.”’
‘“It is precisely the minor differences in people who are otherwise alike that form the basis of feelings of strangeness and hostility between them.”’
‘“Immorality, no less than morality, has at all times found support in religion.”’
‘“Rather than living our lives, we are ″lived″ by unknown and uncontrollable forces.”’
‘“The primitive stages can always be re-established; the primitive mind is, in the fullest meaning of the word, imperishable.”’
‘“At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.”’
‘“That which we can’t remember, we will repeat.”’
‘“In human beings pure masculinity or femininity is not to be found either in a psychological or biological sense.”’
‘“Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts.”’
‘“Conscience is the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us.”’
‘“With words one man can make another blessed, or drive him to despair;.”’
‘“What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.”’
‘“A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.”’
‘“Religious illusion must bow to scientific truth. It is in total error about the nature of the true world. Only science is not an illusion.”’
‘“Analogies, it is true, decide nothing, but they can make one feel more at home.”’
‘“A certain degree of neurosis is of inestimable value as a drive, especially to a psychologist.”’
‘“Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another.”’
‘“Thinking is an experimental dealing with small quantities of energy, just as a general moves miniature figures over a map before setting his troops in action.”’
‘“Religion originates in the child’s and young mankind’s fears and need for help. It cannot be otherwise.”’
‘“Words were originally magic, and the word retains much of its old magical power even to-day.”’
‘“The inclination to aggression constitutes the greatest impediment to civilization.”’
‘“Everyone owes nature a death.”’
‘“The whole life of instinct serves the one end of bringing about death.”’
‘“Our fascination with gold is related to the fantasies of early childhood.”’
Sigmund Freud Sayings
‘“Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other and to a greater or lesser extent.”’
‘“I became aware of my destiny: to belong to the critical minority as opposed to the unquestioning majority.”’
‘“Life as we find it is too hard for us; it entails too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks. We cannot do without palliative remedies.”’
‘“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.”’
‘“We know less about the sexual life of little girls than of boys. But we need not feel ashamed of this distinction; after all, the sexual life of adult women is a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.”’
‘“When we share – that is poetry in the prose of life.”’
‘“When one does not have what one wants, one must want what one has.”’
‘“A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual.”’
‘“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.”’
‘“Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs.”’
‘The game replaces sexual enjoyment by pleasure in movement.”’
‘“Just as no one can be forced into belief, so no one can be forced into unbelief.”’
‘“There is little that gives children greater pleasure than when a grown-up lets himself down to their level, renounces his oppressive superiority and plays with them as an equal.”’
‘“There is no doubt that the resistance of the conscious and unconscious ego operates under the sway of the pleasure principle: it seeks to avoid the unpleasure which would be produced by the liberation of the repressed.”’
‘“A woman should soften but not weaken a man.”’
‘“The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.”’
‘“When someone abuses me I can defend myself, but against praise I am defenceless.”’
‘“Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea they become powerless when they oppose it.”’
‘“Religion is the process of unconscious wish fulfillment, where, for certain people, if the process did not take place it would put them in self-danger of coming to mental harm, being unable to cope with the idea of a godless, purposeless life.”’
‘“A strong egoism is a protection against disease, but in the last resort we must begin to love in order that we may not fall ill, and must fall ill if, in consequence of frustration, we cannot love.”’
‘“I have found little ‘good’ about human beings. In my experience, most of them are trash…”’
‘“Even if all parts of a problem seem to fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, one has to remember that the probable need not necessarily be the truth and the truth not always probable.”’
‘“No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.”’
‘“It is easy to see that the ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.”’
‘“A man who has been the indisputable favorite of his mother keeps for life the feeling of a conqueror.”’
‘ “A hero is a man who stands up manfully against his father and in the end victoriously overcomes him.”’
‘“The ego is first and foremost a bodily ego; it is not merely a surface entity, but is itself the projection of a surface. If we wish to find an anatomical analogy for it we can best identify it with the ‘cortical homunculus’ of the anatomists, which stands on its head in the cortex, sticks up its heels, faces.”’
‘“If you want to endure life, prepare yourself for death.”’
‘“The Devil would be the best way out as an excuse for God; in that way he would be playing the same part as an agent of economic discharge as the Jew does in the world of the Aryan ideal. But even so, one can hold God responsible for the existence of the Devil just as well as for the existence of the wickedness which the Devil embodies.”’
‘“It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement – that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life.”’
‘“Once again, only religion can answer the question of the purpose of life. One can hardly be wrong in concluding that the idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the religious system.”’
‘“If the truth of religious doctrines is dependent on an inner experience that bears witness to the truth, what is one to make of the many people who do not have that experience?”’
‘“Religion belonged to the infancy of humanity. Now that humanity had come of age, it should be left behind.”’
‘“The most complicated achievements of thought are possible without the assistance of consciousness.”’
‘“When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life.”’
‘“The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.”’
‘“The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious; what I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied.”’
‘“Talk therapy turns hysterical misery to mundane unhappiness.”’
‘“The scope of one’s personality is defined by the magnitude of that problem which is capable of driving a person out of his wits.”’
‘“In the last analysis the entire field of psychology may reduce to biological electrochemistry.”’
‘“Humor is a means of obtaining pleasure in spite of the distressing effects that interface with it.”’
‘“The only unnatural sexual behavior is none at all.”’
‘“What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.”’
‘“Only a good-for-nothing is not interested in his past.”’
‘“The more perfect a person is on the outside, the more demons they have on the inside.”’
‘“The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.”’
‘“The ego represents what we call reason and sanity, in contrast to the id which contains the passions.”’
‘“The aim of psychoanalysis is to relieve people of their neurotic unhappiness so that they can be normally unhappy.”’
‘“When we attempt to imagine death, we perceive ourselves as spectators.”’
‘“Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.”’
‘“I have never doubted that religious phenomena are only to be understood on the pattern of the individual neurotic symptoms familiar to us.”’
‘“No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.”’
‘ “Humanity is in the highest degree irrational, so that there is no prospect of influencing it by reasonable arguments. Against prejudice one can do nothing.”’
‘“Where such men love they have no desire and where they desire they cannot love.”’
‘“Knowledge is the intellectual manipulation of carefully verified observations.”’
‘“One is very crazy when in love.”’
‘“Desire presses ever forward unsubdued.”’
‘“The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.”’
‘“All giving is asking, and all asking is an asking for love.”’
Freud Quotations
‘“In mourning it is the world which has become poor and empty; in melancholia it is the ego itself.”’
‘“Only the real, rare, true scientific minds can endure doubt, which is attached to all our knowledge.”’
‘“A civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.”’
‘“Dreams are constructed from the residue of yesterday.”’
‘“Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine.”’
‘“Writers write for fame, wealth, power and the love of women.”’
‘“The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter.”’
‘ “Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power.”’
‘“The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to serve three harsh masters, and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all three… The three tyrants are the external world, the superego, and the id.”’
‘“Were we fully to understand the reasons for other people’s behavior, it would all make sense.”’
‘“All that matters is love and work.”’
‘“Dreams are the guardians of sleep and not its disturbers.”’
‘“Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.”’
‘“To be completely honest with oneself is the very best effort a human being can make.”
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‘“Crystals reveal their hidden structures only when broken.”’
‘ “The ego is not master in its own house.”’
‘“Loneliness and darkness have just robbed me of my valuables.”’
‘“Anxiety in children is originally nothing other than an expression of the fact they are feeling the loss of the person they love.”’
‘“Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy.”’
‘“History is just new people making old mistakes.”’
‘ “Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair; they can transfer knowledge from teacher to student; words enable the orator to sway his audience and dictate its decisions. Words are capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all men’s actions.”’
‘“Two hallmarks of a healthy life are the abilities to love and to work. Each requires imagination.”’
‘“The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization.”’
‘“The madman is a dreamer awake.”’
‘“If you want your wife to listen to you, then talk to another woman; she will be all ears.”’
‘“A father’s death is the most important event, the more heartbreaking and poignant loss in a man’s life.”’
‘“Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.”’
‘“A piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood.”’
‘“There is a powerful force within us, an un-illuminated part of the mind – separate from the conscious mind that is constantly at work molding our thought, feelings, and actions.”’
‘“The only shame in masturbation is the shame of not doing it well.”’
‘ “I’ve been a fortunate man in life. Nothing has come easily.”’
‘”Time spent with cats is never wasted.”’
‘“A strong egoism is a protection.”’
‘“The first requisite of civilization is that of justice.”’
‘“If youth knew; if age could.”’
‘“All family life is organized around the most damaged person in it.”’
‘“The paranoid is never entirely mistaken.”’
‘“I prefer the company of animals more than the company of humans. Certainly, a wild animal is cruel. But to be merciless is the privilege of civilized humans.”’
‘“Where id was, there ego shall be.”’
‘ “How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.”’
‘“Religion is a universal obsessional neurosis.”’
‘“The voice of reason is small, but very persistent.”’
‘From error to error one discovers the entire truth.”’
‘“There are no mistakes.”’
‘“The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.”’
‘ “Not all men are worthy of love.”’
‘“Maturity is the ability to postpone gratification.”’
‘ “We are what we are because we have been what we have been.”’
‘ “Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”’
‘“In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.”’
‘“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”’
‘“Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.”’
‘ “Where does a thought go when it’s forgotten?”’
‘“Psychoanalysis is in essence a cure through love.”’
‘“Love and work, work and love… that’s all there is.”’
‘“Love is a state of temporary psychosis.”’
‘“The goal of all life is death.”’
‘“The only person with whom you have to compare ourselves, is that you in the past. And the only person better you should be, this is who you are now.”’
‘“We choose not randomly each other. We meet only those who already exists in our subconscious.”’
‘“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.”’
‘“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”’
‘“Words have a magical power. They can either bring the greatest happiness or the deepest despair.”’
‘“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”’
‘“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”’
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