Humanity is in the highest degree irrational, so that there is no prospect of influencing it by reasonable arguments. Against prejudice one can do nothing. Sigmund Freud More Quotes by Sigmund Freud More Quotes From Sigmund Freud Once again, only religion can answer the question of the purpose of life. One can hardly be wrong in concluding that the idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the religious system. Sigmund Freud religious ideas fall Opposition is not necessarily enmity. Sigmund Freud enmity opposition We must not allow ourselves to be deflected by the feminists who are anxious to force us to regard the two sexes as completely equal in position and worth. Sigmund Freud feminist two sex We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love object or its love. Sigmund Freud heartbroken heartbreak love Philosophers stretch the meaning of words until they retain scarcely anything of their original sense. They give the name of "God" to some vague abstraction which they have created for themselves; having done so they can pose before all the world as deists, as believers of God, and they can even boast that they have recognized a higher, purer concept of God, notwithstanding that their God is not nothing more than an insubstantial shadow and no longer the mighty personality of religious doctrines. Sigmund Freud religious names giving We may insist as often as we like that man's intellect is powerless in comparison to his instinctual life, and we may be right in this. Nevertheless, there is something peculiar about this weakness. The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it will not rest until it has gained a hearing. Finally, after a countless succession of rebuffs, it succeeds. Sigmund Freud weakness voice men Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness. Sigmund Freud spiritual work love Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me. Sigmund Freud poetry-by-famous-poets has-beens poet What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult. Sigmund Freud wisdom missing-you children I take up the standpoint that the tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man, and I come back now to the statement that it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture. Sigmund Freud independent powerful men We find a place for what we lose. Although we know that after such a loss the acute stage of mourning will subside, we also know that we shall remain inconsolable and will never find a substitute. No matter what may fill the gap, even if it be filled completely, it nevertheless remains something else. Sigmund Freud grief change loss What is characteristic of illusions is that they are derived from human wishes. Sigmund Freud illusion characteristics wish Life as we find it is too hard for us; it entails too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks. We cannot do without palliative remedies. Sigmund Freud pain tasks disappointment Pathology has made us acquainted with a great number of states in which the boundary lines between the ego and the external world become uncertain or in which they are actually drawn incorrectly. There are cases in which parts of a person's own body, even portions of his own mental life - his perceptions, thoughts and feelings -, appear alien to him and as not belonging to his ego; there are other cases in which he ascribes to the external world things that clearly originate in his own ego and that ought to be acknowledged by it. Sigmund Freud ego feelings numbers He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore. Sigmund Freud keeping-secrets betrayal eye What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree. Sigmund Freud happy joy happiness Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this. Sigmund Freud unity race civilization Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy. Sigmund Freud dream inspiring morning I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection. Sigmund Freud fathers-day daughter strong The gods retain their threefold task: they must exorcize the terrors of nature, they must reconcile men to the cruelty of Fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for the sufferings and privations which a civilized life in common has imposed on them. Sigmund Freud fate suffering men
