Quotes from Sigmund Freud

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.

From error to error one discovers the entire truth.

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

Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities.

Religion is an illusion, and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses.

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.

The great question which I have not been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is What does a woman want

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

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

We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love.

Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.

Where does a thought go when it's forgotten?

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.

A woman should soften but not weaken a man.

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.

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.

In so doing, the idea forces itself upon him that religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis, and he is optimistic enough to suppose that mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis.

In the depths of my heart I can't help being convinced that my dear fellow-men, with a few exceptions, are worthless.

Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have , so to speak , pawned a part of their narcissism.

No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.

Life, as we find it, is too hard for us; it brings us too many pains, disappointments and impossible tasks. In order to bear it we cannot dispense with palliative measures... There are perhaps three such measures: powerful deflections, which cause us to make light of our misery; substitutive satisfactions, which diminish it; and intoxicating substances, which make us insensible to it.

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.

Human beings are funny. They long to be with the person they love but refuse to admit openly. Some are afraid to show even the slightest sign of affection because of fear. Fear that their feelings may not be recognized, or even worst, returned. But one thing about human beings puzzles me the most is their conscious effort to be connected with the object of their affection even if it kills them slowly within.