Philosophers stretch the meaning of words until they retain scarcely anything of their original sense. They give the name of "God" to some vague abstraction which they have created for themselves; having done so they can pose before all the world as deists, as believers of God, and they can even boast that they have recognized a higher, purer concept of God, notwithstanding that their God is not nothing more than an insubstantial shadow and no longer the mighty personality of religious doctrines.
Sigmund FreudYou wanted to kill your father in order to be your father yourself. Now you are your father, but a dead father.
Sigmund FreudThe defense against childish helplessness is what lends its characteristic features to the adult's reaction to the helplessness which he has to acknowledge - a reaction which is precisely the formation of religion.
Sigmund FreudOnly the real, rare, true scientific minds can endure doubt, which is attached to all our knowledge.
Sigmund Freud