Religion [is] the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity

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

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.

Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.

In the long run, nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is palpable.

Cigars served me for precisely fifty years as protection and a weapon in the combat of life... I owe to the cigar a great intensification of my capacity to work and a facilitation of my self-control.

I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.