What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
Sigmund FreudA piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood.
Sigmund FreudWhen a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life.
Sigmund FreudThe impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself, and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious thing in life.
Sigmund FreudReligion restricts the play of choice and adaptation, since it imposes equally on everyone its own path to the acquisition of happiness and protection from suffering. Its technique consists in depressing the value of life and distorting the picture of the real world in a delusional manner - which presupposes an intimidation of the intelligence. At this price, by forcibly fixing them in a state of psychical infantilism and by drawing them into a mass-delusion, religion succeeds in sparing many people an individual neurosis. But hardly anything more.
Sigmund Freud