I have often felt as though I had inherited all the defiance and all the passions with which our ancestors defended their Temple and could gladly sacrifice my life for one great moment in history. And at the same time I always felt so helpless and incapable of expressing these ardent passions even by a word or a poem.

Concerning the factors of silence, solitude and darkness, we can only say that they are actually elements in the production of the infantile anxiety from which the majority of human beings have never become quite free.

An intimate friend and a hated enemy have always been indispensable requirements for my emotional life; I have always been able to create them anew, and not infrequently my childish ideal has been so closely approached that friend and enemy coincided in the same person.

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

I regard myself as one of the most dangerous enemies of religion

Intelligence will be used in the service of the neurosis.

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