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Sigmund Freud

91 quotes

“How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his fiancée Martha Bernays (27 June 1882); published in Letters of Sigmund Freud 1873-1939 (1961), 10-12
“Woe to you, my Princess, when I come... you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle girl who doesn't eat enough or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his fiancée, Martha Bernays (2 June 1884)
“Princess, my little Princess, Oh, how wonderful it will be! I am coming with money and staying a long time and bringing something beautiful for you and then go on to Paris and become a great scholar and then come back to Vienna with a huge, enormous halo, and then we will soon get married, and I will cure all the incurable nervous cases and through you I shall be healthy and I will go on kissing you till you are strong and gay and happy — and "if they haven't died, they are still alive today.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Martha Bernays, after receiving a travel grant he had been having dreams of receiving (20 June 1885). The final line is the German equivalent of "and they lived happily ever after," as a conventional ending fo…
“A man like me cannot live without a hobby-horse, a consuming passion — in Schiller's words a tyrant. I have found my tyrant, and in his service I know no limits. My tyrant is psychology. it has always been my distant, beckoning goal and now since I have hit upon the neuroses, it has come so much the nearer.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (1895), as quoted in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences Vol 3-4 (1967) p. 159
“I do not doubt that it would be easier for fate to take away your suffering than it would for me. But you will see for yourself that much has been gained if we succeed in turning your hysterical misery into common unhappiness.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Studies on Hysteria (1895), (co-written with Josef Breuer) as translated by Nicola Luckhurst (2004)
“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (15 October 1897), as quoted in Origins of Psychoanalysis
“I do not in the least underestimate bisexuality. . . I expect it to provide all further enlightenment.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (25 March 1898)
“A woman is to soften but not weaken a man.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am actually not at all a man of science, not an observer, not an experimenter, not a thinker. I am by temperament nothing but a conquistador — an adventurer, if you want it translated — with all the curiosity, daring, and tenacity characteristic of a man of this sort.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Wilhelm Fliess, Feb. 1, 1900. The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904 (1985).
“The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), from The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey.
“And now, the main thing! As far as I can see, my next work will be called "Human Bisexuality." It will go to the root of the problem and say the last word it may be granted to say — the last and the most profound.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (7 August 1901)
“No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human beast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dora : An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (1905), his analysis of the case of Ida Bauer (also translated as Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria)
“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.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (1905) Ch. 2 : The First Dream
“A person who feels pleasure in producing pain in someone else in a sexual relationship is also capable of enjoying as pleasure any pain which he may himself derive from sexual relations. A sadist is always at the same time a masochist.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality" (1905), reprinted in "Essential Papers on Masochism" p.87, edited by Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Hanly, New York University press, New York and London, (1995)
“Psychoanalysis is in essence a cure through love.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1906 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Carl Jung (1906), as quoted in Freud and Man's Soul (1984) by Bruno Bettelheim
“Moreover, the act of birth is the first experience of anxiety, and thus the source and prototype of the affect of anxiety.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), in a footnote Freud added to the Second Edition in 1909 (see Psychoanalytic Pioneers, p. 46.)
“We have long observed that every neurosis has the result, and therefore probably the purpose, of forcing the patient out of real life, of alienating him from actuality.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: General Psychological Theory: Papers on Metapsychology Touchstone, (1963); Ch.1, "Formulation Regarding the Two Principles in Mental Functioning", (1911)
“The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoting Plato, as translated by Abraham Arden Brill, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1913 edition), p.493
“Conscience is the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1913)
“At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Totem and Taboo : Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1913)
“Psychoanalysis ... should find a place among the methods whose aim is to bring about the highest ethical and intellectual development of the individual.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1877 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter number 80 to James Jackson Putnam, March 30, 1914, in James Jackson Putnam and Psychoanalysis: Letters between Putnam and Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, William James, Sandor Ferenczi, and Morton Prince, 1877-1917 …
“The psychic development of the individual is a short repetition of the course of development of the race.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Leonardo da Vinci (1916)
“The ego is not master in its own house.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis (1917)
“Wenn man der unbestrittene Liebling der Mutter gewesen ist, so behält man fürs Leben jenes Eroberergefühl, jene Zuversicht des Erfolges, welche nicht selten wirklich den Erfolg nach sich zieht.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eine Kindheitserinnerung aus »Dichtung und Wahrheit«, first published in the journal Imago, vol. 5 issue 2 (1917), p. 57 books.google = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29946/29946-h/29946-h.htm
“Cruel though it may sound, we must see to it that the patient's suffering, to a degree that is in some way or other effective, does not come to an end prematurely. If, owing to the symptoms having been taken apart and having lost their value, his suffering becomes mitigated, we must re-instate it elsewhere in the form of some appreciable privation; otherwise we run the danger of never achieving any improvements except quite insignificant and transitory ones”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Freud (1919) Lines of Advance in Psycho-Analytic Therapy. cited in: Jürgen Habermas (1972) Knowledge and Human Interests. p. 234
“We are and remain Jews. The others will only exploit us and will never understand and appreciate us.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Biology is truly a land of unlimited possibilities. We may expect it to give us the most surprising information, and we cannot guess what answers it will return in a few dozen years. ...They may be of a kind which will blow away the whole of our artificial structure of hypothesis.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920)
“The unconscious is the larger circle which includes within itself the smaller circle of the conscious; everything conscious has its preliminary step in the unconscious, whereas the unconscious may stop with this step and still claim full value as a psychic activity. Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis For Beginners (1920) as translated by M. D. Eder
“The common characteristic of all perversions, on the other hand, is that they have abandoned reproduction as their aim. We term sexual activity perverse when it has renounced the aim of reproduction and follows the pursuit of pleasure as an independent goal. And so you realize that the turning point in the development of sexual life lies in its subjugation to the purpose of reproduction. Everything this side of the turning point, everything that has given up this purpose and serves the pursuit of pleasure alone, must carry the term "perverse" and as such be regarded with contempt.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, 1920, preface by G. Stanley Hall, Twentieth Lecture: General Theory of the Neuroses, The Sexual Life of Man, New York, Boni and Liveright, p. 273. (reprinted 1975 by Pocket pub.…
“Cruelty and intolerance to those who do not belong to it are natural to every religion.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921)
“We read in Rabelais of how the Devil took flight when the woman showed him her vulva.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Medusa’s Head (1922, p. 274).
“Wer verliebt ist, ist demütig. Wer liebt, hat sozusagen ein Stück seines Narzißmus eingebüßt.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gesammelte Schriften, Volume 6" (1924), p. 183
“Die Anatomie ist das Schicksal”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex" (1924) (original text in German)
“When the wayfarer whistles in the dark, he may be disavowing his timidity, but he does not see any more clearly for doing so.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Problem of Anxiety (1925)
“The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious; what I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his seventieth birthday (1926); as quoted in The Liberal Imagination (1950) by Lionel Trilling
“It is easy to see that the ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ego represents what we call reason and sanity, in contrast to the id which contains the passions.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sexual wishes in regard to the mother become more intense and the father is perceived as an obstacle to the mother; this gives rise to the Oedipus complex.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We obtain our concept of the unconscious, therefore, from the theory of repression … We see, however that we have two kinds of unconscious — that which is latent but capable of becoming conscious, and that which is repressed and not capable of becoming conscious in the ordinary way.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the truth of religious doctrines is dependent on an inner experience that bears witness to the truth, what is one to make of the many people who do not have that experience?”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endlessly repeated rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which it may be optimistic about the future of mankind, but in itself it signifies not a little.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Es braucht nicht gesagt zu werden, daß eine Kultur, welche eine so große Zahl von Teilnehmern unbefriedigt läßt und zur Auflehnung treibt, weder Aussicht hat, sich dauernd zu erhalten, noch es verdient.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A poor girl may have an illusion that a prince will come and fetch her home. It is possible, some such cases have occurred. That the Messiah will come and found a golden age is much less probable.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where the questions of religion are concerned people are guilty of every possible kind of insincerity and intellectual misdemeanor.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Immorality, no less than morality, has at all times found support in religion.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our knowledge of the historical worth of certain religious doctrines increases our respect for them, but does not invalidate our proposal that they should cease to be put forward as the reasons for the precepts of civilization. On the contrary! Those historical residues have helped us to view religious teachings, as it were, as neurotic relics, and we may now argue that the time has probably come, as it does in an analytic treatment, for replacing the effects of repression by the results of the rational operation of the intellect.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The true believer is in a high degree protected against the danger of certain neurotic afflictions, by accepting the universal neurosis he is spared the task of forming a personal neurosis.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source