Sigmund Freud

"I have found little that is good about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash."

"We do not merely remember our past, we re-live our past."

"Beauty has no obvious use; nor is there any clear cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it."

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

"Our love has made us so emotional that we cannot deal with certain situations objectively."

"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways."

"We are all ill in ways that have nothing to do with microbes."

"The theory of repression is the foundation upon which the whole structure of psychoanalysis rests."

"The moment a person makes a concerned effort to find meaning and happiness in his life, he is engaged in a religious activity."

"Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me."

"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"Just as no one can be forced into belief, so no one can be forced into unbelief."

"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with merely suspecting me of heresy."

"The poor are by nature less qualified for analysis."

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

"It is tempting to deny the importance of willpower, but the evidence is clear that it is a vital component of success."

"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons."

"The public may expect to find in the new edition a full account of the methods and results of psychoanalysis."

"A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them."

"Patients are often attonished to hear me say that the more memories they can recover, the worse they feel."

"Woe to the man who in his youth has not laid up store of memories to console him in age."

"America is the most grandiose experiment the world has ever seen, but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success."

"Sex is a biological act but we have made it an emotional experience."

"The goal of all life is death."

"Humor is the best defence we have."

"Where can one now find the tolerance which constitutes the essence of civilization."

"If one wishes to form a true estimate of the full greatness of another person, one should not pay attention to his successes."

"The only person who experiences the world as they actually are is the one who accepts the consequences of their choices."

"Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other."