773 Quotes by Sigmund Freud

The great question that has never been answered , and which I have not yet been able to answer , despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul , is What does a woman want?

To love one’s neighbour as oneself — a commandment which is really justified by the fact that nothing else runs as strongly counter to the original nature of man.

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

I am not aware, however, that patients suffering from traumatic neurosis are much occupied in their waking lives with memories of their accident. Perhaps they are more concerned with not thinking of it.

Writers write for fame, wealth, power and the love of women.

There is no doubt that the resistance of the conscious and unconscious ego operates under the sway of the pleasure principle: it seeks to avoid the unpleasure which would be produced by the liberation of the repressed.

The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.

It must be pointed out, however, that strictly speaking it is incorrect to talk of the dominance of the pleasure principle over the course of mental processes. If such a dominance existed, the immense majority of our mental processes would have to be accompanied by pleasure or to lead to pleasure, whereas universal experience completely contradicts any such conclusion.

I consider it a good rule for letter-writing to leave unmentioned what the recipient already knows, and instead tell him something new.