Sigmund Freud

Life as we find it is too hard for us; it entails too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks.

Fright, fear, apprehension are incorrectly used as synonymous expressions: in their relation to danger they admit of quite clear distinction.

On the other hand, the wart on the forehead of a passing stranger, of whom we did not think for a second after he was out of sight, plays its part in our dreams.

We must say that these savages are even more sensitive to incest than we, perhaps because they are more subject to temptations than we are, and hence require more extensive protection against it.

And finally one must take into account the remarkable fact that in general men experience the present naïvely, so to speak, without being able to estimate its content; they must first place it at a distance, i.e. the present must have become the past before one can win from it points of vantage from which to gauge the future.

Words call forth effects and are the universal means of influencing human beings.

Schubert, for instance, claims: "The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter."

To be sure, I have enough to do with nerves.

Even science has lost her dispassionate impartiality.

The conscious life of the mind is of small importance in comparison with its unconscious life.

The popular theory of the sexual impulse corresponds closely to the poetic fable of dividing the person into two halves—man and woman—who strive to become reunited through love.

It is much less difficult to be unhappy.

The study of dreams may be regarded as the most trustworthy approach to the exploration of the deeper psychic processes.

Le songeur est un acteur qui joue à volonté les fous et les sages, les bourreaux et les victimes, les nains et les géants, les démons et les anges

Parents are said to remain young with their children, and this is, in fact, one of the most valuable psychic benefits which parents derive from their children.

It seems more probable that every culture must be built up on coercion and instinctual renunciation; it does not even appear certain that without coercion the majority of human individuals would be ready to submit to the labour necessary for acquiring new means of supporting life.

Therefore, let us not undervalue small signs; perhaps by means of them we will succeed in getting on the track of greater things.

Is it not customary, when some one expects others to look after his interests without any advantage to themselves, to ask the innocent question satirically: "Do you think this will be done for the sake of your beautiful eyes?"

“I readily believe that you did not grasp my name. My name is like yours—Lederer!”

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.