Sigmund Freud Quotes

I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.

People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.

It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.

The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp. Above all, it fits more snugly than the truth into a universe of false appearances—of complex and irrational phenomena, defectively grasped.

Perception is not always reality.

Obviously I wasn't playing well at the time. But as a player, you lie to yourself. You say, "There's nothing wrong. I'm just not on time [at the plate]." You make something else up because pain is not an option.

How disturbing it is that our illusions are often our most important beliefs.

My life is devoted to self-delusion - and I have a great capacity for that - but it's the thing that gives me the most pleasure, so I can't complain about it.

What do we any of us have but our illusions? And what do we ask of others but that we be allowed to keep them?

You can't live without illusions, even if you must fight for them.

He thinks he believes only what he sees, but he is much better at believing than at seeing.

A thing can only live through a pious illusion.

What is characteristic of illusions is that they are derived from human wishes.

All you know is what you think you know, but that isn't always what's real.

We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.

Most people like to live in illusions.

A man’s greatest treasures are his illusions - Durzo Blint

People would rather be deceived than have the truth cause them anxiety

The realist lies for advantage. The fantasist lies to give his dreams a flavor of reality.

When we believe in lies, we cannot see the truth, so we make thousands of assumptions and we take them as truth. One of the biggest assumptions we make is that the lies we believe are the truth!

Seeing is not always believing.

The problem with our role is Americans live in a world of illusion.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

In every story of solipsism, there is always a conspiracy. Why? Because there is always a background involved in every perception.

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.