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Quotations by Sigmund Freud

It sounds like a fairy-tale - It sounds like a fairy-tale, but not only that; this story of what man by his science and practical inventions has achieved on this earth, where he first appeared as a weakly member of the animal kingdom, and on which each individual of his species must ever again appear as a helpless infant ... is a direct fulfillment of all, or of most, of the dearest wishes in his fairy-tales. All these possessions he has acquired through culture. Long ago he formed an ideal conception of omnipotence and omniscience which he embodied in his gods. Whatever seemed unattainable to his desires - or forbidden to him - he attributed to these gods.

One may say, therefore, that these gods were the ideals of his culture. Now he has himself approached very near to realizing this ideal, he has nearly become a god himself. But only, it is true, in the way that ideals are usually realized in the general experience of humanity. Not completely; in some respects not at all, in others only by halves.

Man has become a god by means of artificial limbs, so to speak, quite magnificent when equipped with all his accessory organs; but they do not grow on him and they still give him trouble at times... Future ages will produce further great advances in this realm of culture, probably inconceivable now, and will increase man's likeness to a god still more.

Foundation for neurosis laid in childhood - I am inclined to suppose that children cannot find their way to acts of sexual aggression unless they have been seduced previously. The foundation for a neurosis would accordingly always be laid in childhood by adults.

Interpretation of dreams - The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.

I am not at all a man of science - I am actually not at all a man of science, not an observer, nor an experimenter, not a thinker. I am by temperament nothing but a conquistador - an adventurer.. . with all the curiosity, daring, and tenacity characteristic of a man of this sort.

A mother's undisputed darling - If a man has been his mother's undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it.

The ego's relation to the id - The Ego's relation to the Id might be compared with that of a rider to his horse. The horse supplies the locomotive energy, while the rider has the privilege of deciding on the goal and of guiding the powerful animal's movement. But only too often there arises between the Ego and the Id the not precisely ideal situation of the rider being obliged to guide the horse along the path by which it itself wants to go.

The poor ego serves three master - The poor Ego.. . serves three severe masters and does what it can to bring their claims and demands into harmony with one another. . . Its three tyrannical masters are the external world, the super-ego, and the Id.

Intolerance of different groups - Intolerance of groups is often, strangely enough, exhibited more strongly against small differences than against fundamental ones.

The great question never answered - The great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is "What does a woman want?"

Analogies decide nothing - Analogies decide nothing, that is true, but they can make one feel more at home.

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