Taboo restrictions are distinct from religious or moral prohibitions. They are not based upon any divine ordinance, but may be said to impose themselves on their own account. They differ from moral prohibitions in that they fall into no system that declares quite generally that certain abstinences must be observed and gives reasons for that necessity.

It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct.

A certain degree of neurosis is of inestimable value as a drive, especially to a psychologist.

I have never doubted that religious phenomena are only to be understood on the pattern of the individual neurotic symptoms familiar to us.

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

All that matters is love and work.

Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this.