A state of consciousness is characteristically very transitory; an idea that is conscious now is no longer so a moment later, although it can become so again under certain conditions that are easily brought about.

Psychiatry is the art of teaching people how to stand on their own feet while reclining on couches.

Loneliness and darkness have just robbed me of my valuables.

Another technique for fending off suffering is the employment of the displacements of libido which our mental apparatus permits of and through which its function gains so much in flexibility. The task here is that of shifting the instinctual aims in such a way that they cannot come up against frustration from the external world.

I no longer believe that William Shakespeare the actor from Stratford was the author of the works that have been ascribed to him.

Civilization runs a greater risk if we maintain our present attitude to religion than if we give it up.

There is an intellectual function in us which demands unity, connection and intelligibility from any material, whether of perception or thought, that comes within its grasp; and if, as a result of special circumstances, it is unable to establish a true connection, it does not hesitate to fabricate a false one.