We know that the great majority of people have a strong need for authority which it can admire, to which it can submit, and which dominates and sometimes even ill-treats it.

Civilization has little to fear from educated people and brain-workers. In them the replacement of religious motives for civilized behaviors by other, secular motives, would proceed unobtrusively. . . .

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

Against the suffering which may come upon one from human relationships the readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness. Against the dreaded external world one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself.

In the depths of my heart I can’t help being convinced that my dear fellow-men, with a few exceptions, are worthless.

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

Were we fully to understand the reasons for other people's behavior, it would all make sense.