Were we fully to understand the reasons for other people's behavior, it would all make sense.

Perception is less of a recording system and more of a protection system against external stimuli.

We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast.

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.

Thus we arrive at the singular conclusion that of all the information passed by our cultural assets it is precisely the elements which might be of the greatest importance to us and which have the task of solving the riddles of the universe and of reconciling us to the sufferings of life -- it is precisely those elements that are the least well authenticated of any.

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

I think that in general it is a good plan occasionally to bear in mind the fact that people were in the habit of dreaming before there was such a thing as psychoanalysis.