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Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.

— Sigmund Freud New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis (1933)

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More quotes by Sigmund Freud

Moreover, the act of birth is the first experience of anxiety, and thus the source and prototype of the affect of anxiety.

The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)

No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human beast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.

Dora : An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (1905)

The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.

The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)

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)

A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.

Group Psychology And The Analysis Of The Ego (1921)

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Sigmund Freud (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.