WIST Quotations

Freud, Sigmund -- “Notebook of Aphorisms” (1871)

Dave — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:55:43 +0000

The worst egoist is the person to whom the thought has never occurred that he might be one.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
“Notebook of Aphorisms” (1871)

Freud, Sigmund -- “On Narcissism: An Introduction [Zur Einführung des Narzißmus],” ch. 3 (1914) [tr. Strachey]

Dave — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 22:50:11 +0000

A person in love is humble. A person who loves has, so to speak, forfeited a part of his narcissism.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
“On Narcissism: An Introduction [Zur Einführung des Narzißmus],” ch. 3 (1914) [tr. Strachey]
(Source)

Alternate translations:

The lover is humble. He who loves has, so to speak, forfeited a part of his narcissism.
[tr. Baines/Riviere]

Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.
[Source]

Freud, Sigmund -- “Reflections upon War and Death” (2) (1915) [tr. Mayne (1963)]

Dave — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:47:08 +0000

What no human soul desires there is no need to prohibit; it is automatically excluded. The very emphasis of the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, makes it certain that we spring from an endless ancestry of murderers, with whom the lust for killing was in the blood, as possibly it is to this day with ourselves.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
“Reflections upon War and Death” (2) (1915) [tr. Mayne (1963)]

Freud, Sigmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
(Attributed)

Freud, Sigmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:14:20 +0000

If the fire rages uncontrolled in a house, we call it a disastrous conflagration; if it burns in a smelting furnace, we call it a useful industrial force. In other words, our drives and impulses as they live within us are neither good nor bad, right nor wrong.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
(Attributed)

Quoted in Helen Walker Puner, Freud: His Life and His Mind, ch. 10 (1947).

Freud, Sigmund -- (Spurious)

Dave — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:53:01 +0000

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
(Spurious)

First cited in the US in 1950, over a decade after his death. No earlier citation is found than that, and no record has been found in Freud's works (translated or original). More discussion here.

Freud, Sigmund -- Letter to Ernest Jones (Jan 1933)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist
Letter to Ernest Jones (Jan 1933)
(Source)

Regarding Nazi book burnings in Germany. Reprinted in Jones, Sigmund Freud: Life and Work, Vol. 3, Part 1, ch. 4 (1957).