Sigmund Freud Quotes

Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)

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Sigmund Freud ([ˈziːgmʊnt ˈfrɔʏ̯t]; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology. He was the father of Anna Freud, the grandfather of Sir Clement Freud and Lucian Freud, and the uncle of Edward Bernays.

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Alternative Names: Sigismund Schlomo Freud • Sigmund Schlomo Freud • Sigismund Freud • Freud

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A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.

When a love-relationship is at its height there is no room left for any interest in the environment; a pair of lovers are sufficient to themselves

Poets are masters of us ordinary men, in knowledge of the mind,
because they drink at streams which we have not yet made accessible to science.

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)

How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved

The ego is not master in its own house.

Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity

Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea,they become powerless when they oppose it.

A love that does not discriminate seems to me to forfeit a part of its own value, by doing an injustice to its object; and secondly, not all men are worthy of love.

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.

Instinct of love toward an object demands a mastery to obtain it, and if a person feels they can't control the object or feel threatened by it, they act negatively toward it.

It goes without saying that a civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.

It is a predisposition of human nature to consider an unpleasant idea untrue, and then it is easy to find arguments against it.

No neurotic harbors thoughts of suicide which are not murderous impulses against others redirected upon himself.

There are no mistakes