It would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be.

Demons do not exist any more than gods do, being only the products of the psychic activity of man.

A layman will no doubt find it hard to understand how pathological disorders of the body and mind can be eliminated by 'mere' words. He will feel that he is being asked to believe in magic. And he will not be so very wrong, for the words which we use in our everyday speech are nothing other than watered-down magic. But we shall have to follow a roundabout path in order to explain how science sets about restoring to words a part at least of their former magical power.

The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization.

It is easy to see that the ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.

If you can't do it, give up!

Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis.