Sigmund Freud's best quotes – and the cigar he never mentioned
The top 3 according to 264 votes from people: Where id is, there shall ego be. · The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. · Analogies prove nothing, that is quite true, but they can make one feel more at home.. (Updated Mar 21, 2023.)
From 'the royal road to the unconscious' and 'Where id is, there shall ego be' to his line about the Nazis burning his books: Sigmund Freud's real words with their source, plus the famous cigar quote that is apocryphal.
Top 12
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1
Where id is, there shall ego be.
New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1933).
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2
The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.
The Interpretation of Dreams (1900).
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3
Analogies prove nothing, that is quite true, but they can make one feel more at home.
New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1933).
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4
The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.
The Future of an Illusion (1927).
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5
What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.
Letter to Ernest Jones, 1933, after the Nazi book burnings.
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6
Aggressiveness was not created by property.
Civilization and Its Discontents (1930).
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7
How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.
Letter to his fiancée Martha Bernays, 27 June 1882.
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8
One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse.
New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1933).
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9
He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret.
Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria ('Dora', 1905).
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10
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Apocryphal: no source in his writings or letters, as the psychologist Alan C. Elms showed in 2001.
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11
Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
Letter to Wilhelm Fliess, 1897.
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12
Psychoanalysis is in essence a cure through love.
Letter to Carl Jung, 1906.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (1)
The book burning one is darkly funny until you remember what came after. Glad the cigar myth is called out, it's on every mug.