Sigmund Freud Quotes
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Working in Vienna, he developed an elaborate theory of the unconscious, of repression and the structure of the psyche, of dreams as wish-fulfillment, and of the role of sexuality in mental life. The quotes below are attributed to Sigmund Freud, organized by topic.
Browse Sigmund Freud by topic
Sigmund Freud on Freedom
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Attributed to Sigmund Freud:
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
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“A man like me cannot live without a hobby-horse, a consuming passion — in Schiller 's words a tyrant. I have found my tyrant, and in his service I know no limits. My tyrant is psychology. it has always been my distant, beckoning goal and now since I have hit upon the neuroses, it has come so much the nearer.”
Ein Mensch wie ich kann ohne Steckenpferd, ohne herrschende Leidenschaften, ohne einen Tyrannen in Schillers Worten, nicht leben. Ich habe meinen Tyrannen gefunden und in seinem Dienst kenne ich kein Maß. | Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (1895), as quoted in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences Vol 3-4 (1967) p. 159
Sigmund Freud on God
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“Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis.”
Ch. 10
Sigmund Freud on Happiness
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“Princess, my little Princess, Oh, how wonderful it will be! I am coming with money and staying a long time and bringing something beautiful for you and then go on to Paris and become a great scholar and then come back to Vienna with a huge, enormous halo, and then we will soon get married, and I will cure all the incurable nervous cases and through you I shall be healthy and I will go on kissing you till you are strong and gay and happy — and "if they haven't died, they are still alive today.”
Letter to Martha Bernays, after receiving a travel grant he had been having dreams of receiving (20 June 1885). The final line is the German equivalent of "and they lived happily ever after," as a conventional ending for fairy tales.
Sigmund Freud on Knowledge
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“How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved .”
Letter to his fiancée Martha Bernays (27 June 1882); published in Letters of Sigmund Freud 1873-1939 (1961), 10-12 -
“Woe to you, my Princess, when I come... you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle girl who doesn't eat enough or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body.”
Letter to his fiancée, Martha Bernays (2 June 1884) -
“Princess, my little Princess, Oh, how wonderful it will be! I am coming with money and staying a long time and bringing something beautiful for you and then go on to Paris and become a great scholar and then come back to Vienna with a huge, enormous halo, and then we will soon get married, and I will cure all the incurable nervous cases and through you I shall be healthy and I will go on kissing y”
Letter to Martha Bernays, after receiving a travel grant he had been having dreams of receiving (20 June 1885). The final line is the German equivalent of "and they lived happily ever after," as a conventional ending for fairy tales. -
“Ein Mensch wie ich kann ohne Steckenpferd, ohne herrschende Leidenschaften, ohne einen Tyrannen in Schillers Worten, nicht leben. Ich habe meinen Tyrannen gefunden und in seinem Dienst kenne ich kein Maß.”
A man like me cannot live without a hobby-horse, a consuming passion — in Schiller 's words a tyrant. I have found my tyrant, and in his service I know no limits. My tyrant is psychology. it has always been my distant, beckoning goal and now since I have hit upon the neuroses, it has come so much the nearer. -
“I do not doubt that it would be easier for fate to take away your suffering than it would for me. But you will see for yourself that much has been gained if we succeed in turning your hysterical misery into common unhappiness.”
Studies on Hysteria (1895), (co-written with Josef Breuer ) as translated by Nicola Luckhurst (2004)
Sigmund Freud on Love
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“We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love.”
Ch. 2; as translated by James Strachey , p.63
Sigmund Freud on Mind
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“Where id was, there ego shall be.”
The Anatomy of the Mental Personality (Lecture 31) -
“The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.”
The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), from The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , translated by James Strachey. | At any rate the interpretation of dreams is the via regia to a knowledge of the unconscious in the psychic life. Alternate translation by Abraham Arden Brill, p. 483 . Freud did use the Latin phrase via regia in the original as opposed to translating
Sigmund Freud on Politics
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Attributed to Sigmund Freud:
“The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.”
Sigmund Freud on Truth
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“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”
Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (15 October 1897), as quoted in Origins of Psychoanalysis
Things actually not said by Sigmund Freud
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Sigmund Freud but are in fact from someone else. Did Sigmund Freud say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Sigmund Freud say this? No.
“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This is not a statement that has been found in any translation of any of Freud's known works. It is a paraphrase of a statement from the essay "Guns, Murders, and the Constitution" (February 1990) by Don B. Kates, Jr. where Kates summarizes his views of passages in Dreams in Folklore (1958) by Freud
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Did Sigmund Freud say this? No.
“Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Psychology professor Alan C. Elms stated in the article “Apocryphal Freud: Sigmund Freud’s Most Famous ‘Quotations’ and Their Actual Sources.” (2001): "In this case, however, not only do we lack any written record of Freud as the direct source, but also there are many reasons to conclude that Freud
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Did Sigmund Freud say this? No.
“Time spent with cats is never wasted.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Frequently attributed to Freud, but there is no evidence Freud ever said it .
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Did Sigmund Freud say this? No.
“The mind is like an iceberg.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: According to this Google Search result , the earliest reference on this quote belongs to Hon. B. G. Northrop in 1884. But the person who popularized it might be G. Stanley Hall .
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Did Sigmund Freud say this? No.
“This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.”
A remark about the Irish, quoted as a statement of Freud's in the Oscar-winning movie The Departed , there is no evidence Freud ever said it .
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Did Sigmund Freud say this? No.
“Women oppose change, receive passively, and add nothing of their own”
Alledgedly written in 'The Psychical Consequences of the Anatomic Distinction Between the Sexes', but Freud neither says this nor argues this exact sentiment. Possible originates from Donna Stewart