We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love object or its love.

The time comes when each of us has to give up as illusions the expectations which, in his youth, he pinned upon his fellow-men, and when he may learn how much difficulty and pain has been added to his life by their ill-will.

Religious illusion must bow to scientific truth. It is in total error about the nature of the true world. Only science is not an illusion.

Much of our highly valued cultural heritage has been acquired at the cost of sexuality.

The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to serve three harsh masters, and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all three...The three tyrants are the external world, the superego, and the id.

My boy! Smoking is one of the greatest and cheapest enjoyments in life, and if you decide in advance not to smoke, i can only feel sorry for you.

Sadism is all right in its place, but it should be directed to proper ends.