What psycho-analysis reveals in the transference phenomena of neurotics can also be observed in the lives of some normal people. The impression they give is of being pursued by a malignant fate or possessed by some 'daemonic' power; but psycho-analysis has always taken the view that their fate is for the most part arranged by themselves and determined by early infantile influences.

Religion (is) a universal obsessional neurosis.

What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.

It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct.

The doctor should be opaque to his patients and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him.

Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God. When he puts on all his auxiliary organs, he is truly magnificent; but those organs have not grown on him and they still give him much trouble at times.

The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.