Children are completely egoistic; they feel their needs intensely and strive ruthlessly to satisfy them.

Life as we find it is too hard for us; it entails too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks. We cannot do without palliative remedies.

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.

What is a totem? It is as a rule an animal (whether edible and harmless or dangerous and feared) and more rarely a plant or a natural phenomenon (such as rain or water), which stands in a peculiar relation to the whole clan. In the first place, the totem is the common ancestor of the clan; at the same time it is their guardian spirit and helper, which sends them oracles and, if dangerous to others, recognizes and spares its own children.

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.

I cannot face the idea of life without work. What would one do when ideas failed or words refused to come? It is impossible not to shudder at the thought.

In matters of sexuality we are at present, every one of us, ill or well, nothing but hypocrites.