Top 12 Sigmund Freud Quotes
Sometimes a quote is just a quote
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This is the latest in my quotes collection series. Check out the full collection here.
Sigmund Freud was wrong about almost everything. His theories, from the Oedipus complex to penis envy, have aged about as well as phrenology and bloodletting. And yet, the man had a way with words! Even when his science went off the rails, his writing could be engaging, thought-provoking, and occasionally profound. Here are twelve of his most memorable lines - proof that even a pseudoscientist can still be quotable.
“We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love.”
“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.”1
“The only person with whom you have to compare yourself is you in the past.”
“If suffering really gives lessons, the world would be populated only by wise men.”
“The individual himself regards sexuality as one of his own ends; whereas from another point of view he is an appendage to his germ-plasm, at whose disposal he puts his energies in return for a bonus of pleasure. He is the mortal vehicle of a (possibly) immortal substance - like the inheritor of an entailed property, who is only the temporary holder of an estate which survives him.” [Here, Freud anticipates the gene’s-eye view of evolution popularized by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene.]
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
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“We shall tell ourselves that it would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an afterlife; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be. And it would be more remarkable still if our wretched, ignorant and downtrodden ancestors had succeeded in solving all these difficult riddles of the universe.”
“Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor. Philosophers stretch the meaning of words until they retain scarcely anything of their original sense; by calling ‘God’ some vague abstraction which they have created for themselves, they pose as deists, as believers, before the world; they may even pride themselves on having attained a higher and purer idea of God, although their God is nothing but an insubstantial shadow and no longer the mighty personality of religious doctrine.”
“In jest, you can say anything, even the truth.”
“What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.”
“So, I gave my lecture yesterday. Despite the lack of preparation, I spoke quite well and without hesitation, which I ascribe to the cocaine I had taken beforehand. I told about my discoveries in brain anatomy, all very difficult things that the audience certainly did not understand, but all that matters is that they get the impression that I understand it.” [From a letter Freud wrote to his fiancée Martha Bernays in 1884.]
“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”
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Coming Soon to The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter…
12 Things Everyone Should Know About the Big Five Personality Traits
The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter Linkfest for August 2025
The Problem of Free Will, Part 2 (“It was always going to be the case that I would write this post…”)
Some big news about my next book: A Billion Years of Sex Differences
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Steve Stewart-Williams
This is a powerful quote, but I’m not sure it’s actually true. It seems to imply that giving expression to your emotions is the only way to get them out of your system. But venting can just as easily amplify and perpetuate them.
The final quote hits hard!
These are really funny. I disagree with number 2, and then saw your footnote. A lot of emotions, like irritation or impatience at others, are temporary, and you know in advance they are. They are best suppressed for the sake of getting along with others because you will soon forget all about it.
“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.”