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

Woe to you, my Princess, when I come. I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you are froward, you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle little girl who doesn't eat enough, or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body. -- A love letter from Freud to his fiancée.

The individual does actually carry on a double existence: one designed to serve his own purposes and another as a link in a chain, in which he serves against, or at any rate without, any volition of his own.

In the long run, nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is palpable.

The creative writer does the same as the child at play; he creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously.

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.

Religion [is] the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity