The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.

A strong experience in the present awakens in the creative writer a memory of an earlier experience (usually belonging to his childhood) from which there now proceeds a wish which finds its fulfilment in the creative work.

Only a good-for-nothing is not interested in his past.

The price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt.

The idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the religious system.

The reproaches against science for not having yet solved the problems of the universe are exaggerated in an unjust and malicious manner; it has truly not had time enough yet for these great achievements. Science is very young--a human activity which developed late.

If a man has been his mother's undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it.