No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.

A man who has been the indisputable favorite of his mother keeps for life the feeling of a conqueror.

Conscience is the internal perception of the rejection of a particular wish operating within us.

Opposition is not necessarily enmity.

A strong egoism is a protection against disease, but in the last resort we must begin to love in order that we may not fall ill, and must fall ill if, in consequence of frustration, we cannot love.

The price of civilization is instinctual renunciation.

The motive forces of phantasies are unsatisfied wishes, and every single phantasy is the fulfillment of a wish, a correction of unsatisfying reality.