Sigmund Freud Quotes

"The expectation that every neurotic phenomenon can be cured may, I suspect, be derived from the layman's belief that the neuroses are something quite unnecessary which have no right whatever to exist. Whereas in fact they are severe, constitutionally fixed illnesses, which rarely restrict themselves to only a few attacks but persist as a rule over long periods throughout life."

"Demons do not exist any more than gods do, being only the products of the psychic activity of man"

"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature"

"Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this."

"One... gets an impression that civilization is something which was imposed on a resisting majority by a minority which understood how to obtain possession of the means to power and coercion. It is, of course, natural to assume that these difficulties are not inherent in the nature of civilization itself but are determined by the imperfections of the cultural forms which have so far been developed."

"No matter how much restriction civilization imposes on the individual, he nevertheless finds some way to circumvent it. Wit is the best safety valve modern man has evolved; the more civilization, the more repression, the more need there is for wit."

"One must not be mean with the affections; what is spent of the fund is renewed in the spending itself."

"From error to error, one discovers the entire truth."

"America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen, but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success."

"Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise"

"Sublimation of instinct is an especially conspicuous feature of cultural development; it is what makes it possible for higher psychical activities, scientific, artistic or ideological, to play such an important part in civilized life. If one were to yield to a first impression, one would say that sublimation is a vicissitude which has been forced upon the instincts entirely by civilization. But it would be wiser to reflect upon this a little longer. In the third place, finally, and this seems the most important of all, it is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built up upon a renunciation of instinct, how much it presupposes precisely the non-satisfaction (by suppression, repression or some other means?) of powerful instincts. This ‘cultural frustration’ dominates the large field of social relationships between human beings;we know already that it is the cause of the antagonism against which all civilization has to fight."

"One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be ''happy'' is not included in the plan of ''Creation.''"

"Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another"

"The goal towards which the pleasure principle impels us / of becoming happy / is not attainable: yet we may not / nay, cannot / give up the efforts to come nearer to realization of it by some means or other."

"What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult."

"Time spent with cats is never wasted."

"I have yet not been able to answer the great question that has never been answered. 'What does a woman want?"

"Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility."

"He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore."

"It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct."