Sigmund Freud

Sigmund FreudSigmund 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