Religion is a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion. Religion's eleventh commandment is "Thou shalt not question."

Creativity is an attempt to resolve a conflict generated by unexpressed biological impulses, such that unfulfilled desires are the driving force of the imagination, and they fuel our dreams and daydreams.

A layman will no doubt find it hard to understand how pathological disorders of the body and mind can be eliminated by 'mere' words. He will feel that he is being asked to believe in magic. And he will not be so very wrong, for the words which we use in our everyday speech are nothing other than watered-down magic. But we shall have to follow a roundabout path in order to explain how science sets about restoring to words a part at least of their former magical power.

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

We should picture the instrument that carries our mental functioning as resembling a compound microscope or photographic apparatus.

The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.

The doctor should be opaque to his patients and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him.