The 98 best phrases of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud was one of the most important intellectual figures of the 20th century. Not only is he the father of psychoanalysis, but his ideas completely changed the paradigms of interpretation of man in almost all areas. A controversial figure no matter how you look at him, we present 103 phrases by Sigmund Freud so that you can know part of his thoughts.

Although of course none of the sentences we have gathered escape the ideas of psychoanalysis, we have tried to ensure that Sigmund Freud’s phrases go beyond the borders of this school of thought. In this way, you will find ideas about life, death, humanity, happiness or passions. This way you will discover the postulates of the Austrian intellectual.

The best phrases of Sigmund Freud

Opinions about Freud’s contributions to the course of humanity are as varied as they are contradictory. There are those who read his works as literature and philosophy, others as highly valid medical treatises..

Be that as it may, the Sigmund Freud phrases that we present to you cover almost all the important topics that concern life:

1. “Being completely honest with yourself is a good exercise.”

Although not always one that is easy to execute. The honesty you exercise towards yourself requires courage, commitment and of course being honest with who you are, your identity and your desires.

2. “Most people don’t really want freedom, because freedom implies responsibility and most people fear responsibility.”

This is one of Sigmund Freud’s phrases that you can find in Civilization and its discontents (1930). Freud dedicated several lines to freedom.

3. “Love and work are cornerstones of our humanity.”

And they were also true for Freud himself, as he noted on several occasions in his life. Whether you intend to avoid them or not, the role that work and love play in a man’s life is undeniable.

4. “He who has eyes to see and ears to hear can convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, they chat with the tips of his fingers; betrayal oozes from him from every pore.”

Words you find in Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. If you have ever confided a very important secret, you will surely have thought about this.

5. “We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love.”

Another of the sentences that every reader will be able to corroborate. To love is to bare a part of yourself, which inevitably exposes you to suffering.

6. “He who loves becomes humble. Those who love, so to speak, have pledged a part of their narcissism.”

Or at least only those who truly love. Those who practice false love are not usually very linked to humility.

7. “Men are more moral than they think and much more immoral than they can imagine.”

One of Sigmund Freud’s best-known phrases on morality.

8. “The intention for man to be happy is not in the plans of creation.”

It is not in nature’s plans either. This does not prevent man from wanting to include it in his life purposes.. If you want to read what other intellectuals thought about it, we leave you with the best phrases about happiness.

9. “Men are strong as long as they represent a strong idea, they become powerless when they oppose it.”

The strength of a man is measured in relation to the power of his ideas. This is materialized in all aspects of him, in his actions and in the exercise of his words, for example.

10. “The more perfect a person is on the outside, the more demons they have on the inside.”

Thus we arrive at the first of Sigmund Freud’s phrases about the unconscious. What lies inside is greater than what lies outside, although sometimes its presence cannot be glimpsed with the naked eye.

11. “What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the satisfaction, preferably sudden, of needs that have been repressed to a high degree.”

In short, to achieve happiness we must satisfy the pleasures that we have repressed.

12. “Civilized society is perpetually threatened by disintegration due to the hostility of men toward each other.”

One of Sigmund Freud’s most cited phrases about war, the first of many that we collect today. Warmongering as a central characteristic of man is an idea shared by many thinkers.

13. “Just as no one can be forced to believe, no one can be forced to disbelieve.”

It also applies when trying to force one or another position to be abandoned.

14. “The first requirement of civilization is justice.”

And it is also one of the many manifestations of a state.

15. “A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be harsh and loveless to those who do not belong to it.”

In fact, it is a manifestation that we can corroborate in the most important belief organization systems.

16. “He who knows how to wait does not have to make concessions.”

Ideas that we find in his work Group psychology and ego analysis (1921). It not only applies to those who know how to wait, but for those who are convinced of their ideals.

17. “How bold one becomes when one is sure that one is loved.”

Just as loving leaves you defenseless in the face of suffering, as we already pointed out in other phrases by Sigmund Freud, it can also imbue you with a boldness that you cannot achieve through other means.

18. “One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will seem the most beautiful to you.”

Although by the time you have to fight you don’t see it that way.

19. “We are what we are because we have been what we have been.”

A capital idea in the thought of Sigmund Freud and in the entire current of psychoanalysis.

20. “In small matters trust your mind, in big matters trust your heart.”

A thought that you can embrace as a philosophy of life when making decisions.

21. “Everyone owes a death to nature.”

The date with death is common to all living beings. Although none of us knows where or when it will be, we must be prepared to attend it.

22. “The freedom of the individual is not a gift of civilization. “It was greatest before any civilization existed.”

And it is something that is permanently obtained through the action of man himself. Freedom is not a right that belongs to us, it is one that we must conquer.

23. “Places are often treated like people.”

They are also fondly remembered with those who have left a mark within us.

24. “Men are not creatures who want to be loved, and who at most can defend themselves if attacked; They are, on the contrary, creatures whose instinctive gifts must include a powerful part of aggressiveness.”

It is a cliché that you will find in other phrases by Sigmund Freud.

25. “We are never so helpless and unhappy as when we have lost our beloved object or its love.”

One of the many ways in which love makes us vulnerable is that we are exposed to its loss. The misery of the loss of love, in any of its manifestations, is unlike any other.

26. “In my experience, most human beings are trash, regardless of whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine, or neither. That’s something you can’t say out loud, or even think.”

Freud pointed out on several occasions that man is not only goodness, honesty, intelligence or principles. There is another side to the coin, one that is often omitted.

27. “Civilization began the first time an angry person threw a word instead of a stone.”

This is the beginning of everything we can see today.

28. “A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes, but to come to terms with them: they are legitimately what directs his behavior in the world.”

Without this covenant no man can travel very far before he encounters an obstacle in the way.

29. “With words one man can bless another or drive him to despair.”

Words have a more important influence than we think.

30. “Everyone has desires that they would not like to tell others, that they do not want to admit even to themselves.”

And which therefore seeks to suppress. These cannot be completely contained, so sooner or later they end up coming to the surface. They do it, for example, through dreams.

31. “Every man must discover for himself in what way he should be saved.”

It is a battle that cannot last for long. It is, furthermore, one that must be faced alone.

32. “Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in a single bet, wisdom would probably also exhort us not to anticipate all our happiness on a single thing.”

Another of Sigmund Freud’s phrases about happiness that we could not leave out of our list.

33. “The death of a father is the most important event, the most heartbreaking and moving loss in a man’s life.”

And therefore one of the most difficult to overcome.

34. “Crystals reveal their hidden structures only when they are broken.”

So you often have to go to the limits to be able to appreciate what the object itself consists of. There are things that cannot be seen from the surface.

35. “History is nothing more than new people making old mistakes.”

Something that also happens due to their own ignorance. He who does not know his past is destined to repeat it.

36. “Sleep is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the chains of matter.”

One of Sigmund Freud’s most cited phrases about dreams.

37. “Only real, rare, true scientific minds can endure the doubt that binds all our knowledge.”

No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to get doubt out of your way. This is the incentive that motivates you to move forward.

38. “The virtuous is content to dream what the wicked does in real life.”

A curious way to value what dreams are. Regardless of whether it is exercised publicly or privately, man cannot escape his vices.

39. “Knowledge is the intellectual manipulation of carefully verified observations.”

So it’s not just information. He who confuses knowledge with information sails in the opposite direction to that of wisdom.

40. “Deep down in my heart I cannot help but be convinced that my dear fellow human beings, with a few exceptions, are worthless.”

Ideas that connect to others that we have already noted. The opinion of the Austrian psychologist was not entirely favorable with respect to humanity.

41. “Humanity is irrational to the highest degree, so there is no possibility of influencing it with reasonable arguments. Nothing can be done against prejudice.”

Prejudice or the trumpets of irrationality is what has brought man to the edge of the cliff.

42. “Never…