Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs.

In this way the ego detaches itself from the external world. It is more correct to say: Originally the ego includes everything, later it detaches from itself the external world. The ego-feeling we are aware of now is thus only a shrunken vestige of a far more extensive feeling - a feeling which embraced the universe and expressed an inseparable connection of the ego with the external world.

Love can not be much younger than the lust for murder.

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

What is characteristic of illusions is that they are derived from human wishes.

Neither in my private life nor in my writings, have I ever made a secret of being an out-and-out unbeliever.

No other technique for the conduct of life attaches the individual so firmly to reality as laying emphasis on work; for his work at least gives him a secure place in a portion of reality, in the human community.