Talk therapy turns hysterical misery to mundane unhappiness.
The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.
But the less a man knows about the past and the present the more insecure must prove to be his judgment of the future.
The division of the psychical into what is conscious and what is unconscious is the fundamental premise of psycho-analysis; and it alone makes it possible for psycho-analysis to understand the pathological processes in mental life, which are as common as they are important, and to find a place for them in the framework of science.
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.
Perhaps the gods are kind to us, by making life more disagreeable as we grow older. In the end death seems less intolerable than the manifold burdens we carry.
Human life in common is only made possible when a majority comes together which is stronger than any separate individual and which remains united against all separate individuals. The power of this community is then set up as right in opposition to the power of the individual, which is condemned as brute force.
The communal life of human beings had... a two-fold foundation: the compulsion to work, which was created by external necessity, and the power of love.
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.
The unconscious of one human being can react upon that of another without passing through the conscious.
Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.
When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.
The price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt.
The religions of mankind must be classed among the mass-delusions of this kind. No one, needless to say, who shares a delusion ever recognizes it as such...
Religious ideas have sprung from the same need as all the other achievements of culture: from the necessity for defending itself against the crushing supremacy of nature.
In some place in my soul, in a very hidden corner, I am a fanatical Jew. I am very much astonished to discover myself as such in spite of all efforts to be unprejudiced and impartial. What can I do against it at my age?
Toward the person who has died we adopt a special attitude: something like admiration for someone who has accomplished a very difficult task.
The voice of the intellect is soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endless rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which one may be optimistic about the future of mankind.
Perception is less of a recording system and more of a protection system against external stimuli.
It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness.