Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.
Sigmund Freud Quotes
Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.
We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.
—Sigmund Freud
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.
—Sigmund Freud
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
—Sigmund Freud
Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
—Sigmund Freud
Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient’s ego freedom to decide one way or another.
—Sigmund Freud
We believe that civilization has been created under the pressure of the exigencies of life at the cost of satisfaction of the instincts.
—Sigmund Freud
Whoever loves becomes humble.
Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.
—Sigmund Freud
Experience teaches us that the world is not a nursery.
—Sigmund Freud
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.
—Sigmund Freud
As a rule when I am attacked I can defend myself; but when I am praised, I am helpless.
—Sigmund Freud
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.
—Sigmund Freud
In the depths of my heart I can’t help being convinced that my dear fellow-men, with a few exceptions, are worthless.
—Sigmund Freud
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
—Sigmund Freud
Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, make sure that you’re not surrounded by fools.
—Sigmund Freud
The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.
—Sigmund Freud
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.
—Sigmund Freud
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
—Sigmund Freud
Unexpressed emotions will never die.
They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.
—Sigmund Freud
Every night human beings lay aside the wrappings in which they have enveloped their skin..
We may add that when they go to sleep they carry out an entirely analogous undressing of their minds.
—Sigmund Freud
Today we do not feel quite sure of our new set of beliefs, and the old ones still exist within us.
—Sigmund Freud
I, as is well known, do not like cats.
—Sigmund Freud
Are there not very important things which can only reveal themselves, under certain conditions and at certain times, by quite feeble indications?
—Sigmund Freud
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 finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.
—Sigmund Freud
From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.
—Sigmund Freud
Where id is, there shall ego be.
—Sigmund Freud
Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.
—Sigmund Freud
The ego is not master in its own house.
—Sigmund Freud
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.
—Sigmund Freud
Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.
We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.
—Sigmund Freud
Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine.
The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization.
—Sigmund Freud