Writing was in its origin, the voice of an absent person.

I am not aware, however, that patients suffering from traumatic neurosis are much occupied in their waking lives with memories of their accident. Perhaps they are more concerned with not thinking of it.

I had thought about cocaine in a kind of day-dream.

Beauty has no obvious use; nor is there any clear cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it.

The view is often defended that sciences should be built up on clear and sharply defined basal concepts. In actual fact no science, not even the most exact, begins with such definitions. The true beginning of scientific activity consists rather in describing phenomena and then in proceeding to group, classify and correlate them.

I take up the standpoint that the tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man, and I come back now to the statement that it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture.

I no longer count as one of my merits that I always tell the truth as much as possible; it has become my metier.