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Sigmund Freud Quotes

Doctor

Sigmund Freud is renowned for his groundbreaking exploration of the human mind, consciousness, and behavior. His theories on the unconscious, dreams, and personality have profoundly influenced psychology, literature, and culture. The following quotes capture his insight, analytical depth, and enduring impact on our understanding of human nature.

In this situation, what we call natural ethics has nothing to offer but the narcissistic satisfaction of being able to think one is better than others. This is where ethics based on religion enters the scene with its promises of a better life hereafter. I am inclined to think that, for as long as virtue goes unrewarded here below, ethics will preach in vain.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
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It would be an undoubted advantage if we were to leave God out altogether and honestly admit the purely human origin of all the regulations and precepts of civilization. Along with their pretended sanctity, these commandments and laws would lose their rigidity and unchangeableness as well. People could understand that they are made, not so much to rule them as, on the contrary, to serve their interests; and they would adopt a more friendly attitude to them, and instead of aiming at their abolition, would aim only at their improvement.
From The Future of an Illusion
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The intention that man should be happy is not in the plan of Creation.
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Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have , so to speak , pawned a part of their narcissism.
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we are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our body, which is doomed to decay..., from the external world which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless force of destruction, and finally from our relations with other men... This last source is perhaps more painful to use than any other. (p77)
From Civilization and Its Discontents
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Perhaps the hopes I have confessed to are of an illusory nature, too. But I hold fast to one distinction. Apart from the fact that no penalty is imposed for not sharing them, my illusions are not, like religious ones, incapable of correction.
From The Future of an Illusion
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The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.
From Sexuality and the Psychology of Love
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It would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be.
From The Future of an Illusion
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We believe that it is possible for scientific work to gain some knowledge about the reality of the world, by means of which we can increase out power and in accordance with which we can arrange our life. If this belief is an illusion, then we are in the same position as you. But science has given us evidence by its numerous and important successes that it is no illusion.
From The Future of an Illusion
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Observe the difference between your attitude to illusions and mine. You have to defend the religious illusion with all your might. If it becomes discredited - and indeed the threat to it is great enough - then your world collapses. There is nothing left for you but to despair of everything, of civilization and the future of mankind. From that bondage I am, we are, free. Since we are prepared to renounce a good part of our infantile wishes, we can bear it if a few of our expectations turn out to be illusions.
From The Future of an Illusion
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One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
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A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.
From Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
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Our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution. Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience. We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful to us than any other.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.
From The Future of an Illusion
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Hence, it is quite conceivable that even the sense of guilt engendered by civilization is not recognized as such, but remains for the most part unconscious, or manifests itself as an unease, a discontent, for which other motivations are sought. The religions, at least, have never ignored the part that a sense of guilt plays in civilization. Moreover - a point I failed to appreciate earlier - they claim to redeem humanity from this sense of guilt, which they call sin. From the way in which this redemption is achieved in Christianity - through the sacrificial death of one man, who thereby takes upon himself the guilt shared by all - we drew an inference as to what may have been the original occasion for our acquiring this primordial guilt, which also marked the beginning of civilization.
From Civilization and its Discontents
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My love is something valuable to me which I ought not to throw away without reflection.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
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Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.
From The Future of an Illusion
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Thus we arrive at the singular conclusion that of all the information passed by our cultural assets it is precisely the elements which might be of the greatest importance to us and which have the task of solving the riddles of the universe and of reconciling us to the sufferings of life -- it is precisely those elements that are the least well authenticated of any.
From The Future of an Illusion
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Immorality, no less than morality, has at all times found support in religion.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I can imagine that the oceanic feeling could become connected with religion later on. That feeling of oneness with the universe which is its ideational content sounds very like a first attempt at the consolations of religion, like another way taken by the ego of denying the dangers it sees threatening it in the external world.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone owes nature a death.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In this situation, what we call natural ethics has nothing to offer but the narcissistic satisfaction of being able to think one is better than others. This is where ethics based on religion enters the scene with its promises of a better life hereafter. I am inclined to think that, for as long as virtue goes unrewarded here below, ethics will preach in vain.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It would be an undoubted advantage if we were to leave God out altogether and honestly admit the purely human origin of all the regulations and precepts of civilization. Along with their pretended sanctity, these commandments and laws would lose their rigidity and unchangeableness as well. People could understand that they are made, not so much to rule them as, on the contrary, to serve their interests; and they would adopt a more friendly attitude to them, and instead of aiming at their abolition, would aim only at their improvement.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The intention that man should be happy is not in the plan of Creation.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have , so to speak , pawned a part of their narcissism.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
we are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our body, which is doomed to decay..., from the external world which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless force of destruction, and finally from our relations with other men... This last source is perhaps more painful to use than any other. (p77)
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Perhaps the hopes I have confessed to are of an illusory nature, too. But I hold fast to one distinction. Apart from the fact that no penalty is imposed for not sharing them, my illusions are not, like religious ones, incapable of correction.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.
From Sexuality and the Psychology of Love
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We believe that it is possible for scientific work to gain some knowledge about the reality of the world, by means of which we can increase out power and in accordance with which we can arrange our life. If this belief is an illusion, then we are in the same position as you. But science has given us evidence by its numerous and important successes that it is no illusion.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Observe the difference between your attitude to illusions and mine. You have to defend the religious illusion with all your might. If it becomes discredited - and indeed the threat to it is great enough - then your world collapses. There is nothing left for you but to despair of everything, of civilization and the future of mankind. From that bondage I am, we are, free. Since we are prepared to renounce a good part of our infantile wishes, we can bear it if a few of our expectations turn out to be illusions.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.
From Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution. Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience. We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful to us than any other.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hence, it is quite conceivable that even the sense of guilt engendered by civilization is not recognized as such, but remains for the most part unconscious, or manifests itself as an unease, a discontent, for which other motivations are sought. The religions, at least, have never ignored the part that a sense of guilt plays in civilization. Moreover - a point I failed to appreciate earlier - they claim to redeem humanity from this sense of guilt, which they call sin. From the way in which this redemption is achieved in Christianity - through the sacrificial death of one man, who thereby takes upon himself the guilt shared by all - we drew an inference as to what may have been the original occasion for our acquiring this primordial guilt, which also marked the beginning of civilization.
From Civilization and its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
My love is something valuable to me which I ought not to throw away without reflection.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Thus we arrive at the singular conclusion that of all the information passed by our cultural assets it is precisely the elements which might be of the greatest importance to us and which have the task of solving the riddles of the universe and of reconciling us to the sufferings of life -- it is precisely those elements that are the least well authenticated of any.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Immorality, no less than morality, has at all times found support in religion.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I can imagine that the oceanic feeling could become connected with religion later on. That feeling of oneness with the universe which is its ideational content sounds very like a first attempt at the consolations of religion, like another way taken by the ego of denying the dangers it sees threatening it in the external world.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone owes nature a death.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In this situation, what we call natural ethics has nothing to offer but the narcissistic satisfaction of being able to think one is better than others. This is where ethics based on religion enters the scene with its promises of a better life hereafter. I am inclined to think that, for as long as virtue goes unrewarded here below, ethics will preach in vain.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It would be an undoubted advantage if we were to leave God out altogether and honestly admit the purely human origin of all the regulations and precepts of civilization. Along with their pretended sanctity, these commandments and laws would lose their rigidity and unchangeableness as well. People could understand that they are made, not so much to rule them as, on the contrary, to serve their interests; and they would adopt a more friendly attitude to them, and instead of aiming at their abolition, would aim only at their improvement.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The intention that man should be happy is not in the plan of Creation.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have , so to speak , pawned a part of their narcissism.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
we are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our body, which is doomed to decay..., from the external world which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless force of destruction, and finally from our relations with other men... This last source is perhaps more painful to use than any other. (p77)
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Perhaps the hopes I have confessed to are of an illusory nature, too. But I hold fast to one distinction. Apart from the fact that no penalty is imposed for not sharing them, my illusions are not, like religious ones, incapable of correction.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.
From Sexuality and the Psychology of Love
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We believe that it is possible for scientific work to gain some knowledge about the reality of the world, by means of which we can increase out power and in accordance with which we can arrange our life. If this belief is an illusion, then we are in the same position as you. But science has given us evidence by its numerous and important successes that it is no illusion.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Observe the difference between your attitude to illusions and mine. You have to defend the religious illusion with all your might. If it becomes discredited - and indeed the threat to it is great enough - then your world collapses. There is nothing left for you but to despair of everything, of civilization and the future of mankind. From that bondage I am, we are, free. Since we are prepared to renounce a good part of our infantile wishes, we can bear it if a few of our expectations turn out to be illusions.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.
From Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution. Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience. We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful to us than any other.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hence, it is quite conceivable that even the sense of guilt engendered by civilization is not recognized as such, but remains for the most part unconscious, or manifests itself as an unease, a discontent, for which other motivations are sought. The religions, at least, have never ignored the part that a sense of guilt plays in civilization. Moreover - a point I failed to appreciate earlier - they claim to redeem humanity from this sense of guilt, which they call sin. From the way in which this redemption is achieved in Christianity - through the sacrificial death of one man, who thereby takes upon himself the guilt shared by all - we drew an inference as to what may have been the original occasion for our acquiring this primordial guilt, which also marked the beginning of civilization.
From Civilization and its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
My love is something valuable to me which I ought not to throw away without reflection.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Thus we arrive at the singular conclusion that of all the information passed by our cultural assets it is precisely the elements which might be of the greatest importance to us and which have the task of solving the riddles of the universe and of reconciling us to the sufferings of life -- it is precisely those elements that are the least well authenticated of any.
From The Future of an Illusion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Immorality, no less than morality, has at all times found support in religion.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I can imagine that the oceanic feeling could become connected with religion later on. That feeling of oneness with the universe which is its ideational content sounds very like a first attempt at the consolations of religion, like another way taken by the ego of denying the dangers it sees threatening it in the external world.
From Civilization and Its Discontents
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone owes nature a death.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote