The assumption that everything past is preserved holds good even in mental life only on condition that the organ of the mind has remained intact and that its tissues have not been damaged by trauma or inflammation. But destructive influences which can be compared to causes of illness like these are never lacking in the history of a city, even if it has had a less chequered past than Rome, and even if, like London, it has hardly ever suffered from the visitations of an enemy.

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

From error to error one discovers the entire truth.

One is very crazy when in love.

It must be pointed out, however, that strictly speaking it is incorrect to talk of the dominance of the pleasure principle over the course of mental processes. If such a dominance existed, the immense majority of our mental processes would have to be accompanied by pleasure or to lead to pleasure, whereas universal experience completely contradicts any such conclusion.

[The child receives impressions like] a photographic exposure that can be developed after any interval of time and transformed into a picture.

What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.