Sigmund Freud - Collected Quotes

"There is an intellectual function in us which demands unity, connection and intelligibility from any material, whether of perception or thought, that comes within its grasp; and if, as a result of special circumstances, it is unable to establish a true connection, it does not hesitate to fabricate a false one." (Sigmund Freud, 1913-1914)

"It would be a mistake to suppose that a science consists entirely of strictly proved theses, and it would be unjust to require this. […] Science has only a few apodeictic propositions in its catechism: the rest are assertions promoted by it to some particular degree of probability. It is actually a sign of a scientific mode of thought to find satisfaction in these approximations to certainty and to be able to pursue constructive work further in spite of the absence of final confirmation." (Sigmund Freud, "Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis", 1916)

"Great decisions in the realms of thought and momentous discoveries and solutions of problems are only possible to an individual working in solitude." (Sigmund Freud, "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego", 1921)

"Thinking in pictures is, therefore, only a very incomplete form of becoming conscious. In some way, too, it stands nearer to unconscious processes than does thinking in words, and it is unquestionably older than the latter both ontogenetically and phylogenetically." (Sigmund Freud, "The Ego And The Id", 1923)

"A Weltanschauung [worldview] is an intellectual construction which solves all the problems of our existence uniformly on the basis of one overriding hypothesis, which, accordingly, leaves no question unanswered and in which everything that interests us finds its fixed place [...] the worldview of science already departs noticeably from our definition. It is true that it too assumes the uniformity of the explanation of the universe; but it does so only as a programme, the fulfillment of which is relegated to the future." Sigmund Freud, “New introductory lectures on psycho-analysis”, 1932)

"Analogies prove nothing, that is quite true, but they can make one feel more at home." (Sigmund Freud, "New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis", 1932)

"Thinking is an experimental dealing with small quantities of energy, just as a general moves miniature figures over a map before setting his troops in action.", (Sigmund Freud, "New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis", 1932)

"Even if all parts of a problem seem to fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, one has to remember that the probable need not necessarily be the truth and the truth not always probable." (Sigmund Freud, "Moses and Monotheism", 1939)

"The view is often defended that sciences should be built up on clear and sharply defined basal concepts. In actual fact no science, not even the most exact, begins with such definitions. The true beginning of scientific activity consists rather in describing phenomena and then in proceeding to group, classify and correlate them." (Sigmund Freud, "General Psychological Theory", 1963)

"Science in her perpetual incompleteness and insufficiency is driven to hope for her salvation in new discoveries and new ways of regarding things. She does well, in order not to be deceived, to arm herself with skepticism and to accept nothing new unless it has withstood the strictest examination." (Sigmund Freud)