The functional importance of the ego is manifested in the fact that normally control over the approaches to motility devolves upon it. Thus in its relation to the id it is like a man on horse back, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength while the ego uses borrowed forces.

I became aware of my destiny: to belong to the critical minority as opposed to the unquestioning majority.

There is no likelihood of our being able to suppress humanity's aggressive tendencies... Complete suppression of man's aggressive tendencies is not an issue; what we may try is to direct it into a channel other than that of warfare.

The primitive stages can always be re-established; the primitive mind is, in the fullest meaning of the word, imperishable.

The transformation of object-libido into narcissistic libido which thus takes place obviously implies an abandonment of sexual aims, a desexualization - a kind of sublimation, therefore.

It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too

Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power.