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

Beauty has no obvious use; nor is there any clear cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it.

Men have gained control over the forces of nature to such an extent that with their help they would have no difficulty exterminating one another to the last man. They know this, and hence comes a large part of their current unrest, their unhappiness and their mood of anxiety.

The psychical, whatever its nature may be, is itself unconscious.

I should like to raise the question whether the inevitable stunting of the sense of smell as a result of man's turning away from the earth, and the organic repression of the smell-pleasure produced by it, does not largely share in his predisposition to nervous diseases.

A state of consciousness is characteristically very transitory; an idea that is conscious now is no longer so a moment later, although it can become so again under certain conditions that are easily brought about.

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