QuoteProject
Religious doctrines … are all illusions, they do not admit of proof, and no one can be compelled to consider them as true or to believe in them.
Sigmund Freud
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Freud suggests that religious beliefs are unfounded and cannot be proven true.

In this quote, Sigmund Freud critiques religious doctrines, asserting that they are merely illusions without empirical evidence. He emphasizes that belief in such doctrines is subjective and that individuals cannot be forced to accept or acknowledge them as truth, highlighting the personal and often irrational nature of faith.

Themes

ReligionBeliefIllusionTruthFaith

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate about the validity of religious beliefs, one might reference Freud's perspective on the non-provable nature of doctrines.

More from Sigmund Freud

"He sido un hombre afortunado en la vida, nada me ha sido facil." "I've been a fortunate man in life, nothing has come easy"
Sigmund FreudRead
I take up the standpoint that the tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man, and I come back now to the statement that it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture.
Sigmund FreudRead
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
Sigmund FreudRead
We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love object or its love.
Sigmund FreudRead
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.
Sigmund FreudRead
The tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man... it constitutes the powerful obstacle to culture.
Sigmund FreudRead

Similar quotes

From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not.
LaoziRead
Legality alone is no guide for a moral people. There are many things in this world that have been, or are, legal but clearly immoral. Slavery was legal. Did that make it moral? South Africa’s apartheid, Nazi persecution of Jews, and Stalinist and Maoist purges were all legal, but did that make them moral?
Walter E. WilliamsRead
London is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
Oscar WildeRead
People used to say, "Ignorance is no excuse." Today, ignorance is no problem. After all, you have "a right to your own opinion" - and self-esteem to boot.
Thomas SowellRead
The Little Mute Boy The little boy was looking for his voice. (The king of the crickets had it.) In a drop of water the little boy was looking for his voice. I do not want it for speaking with; I will make a ring of it so that he may wear my silence on his little finger In a drop of water the little boy was looking for his voice. (The captive voice, far away, put on a cricket's clothes.) Translated by William S. Merwin
Federico Garcia LorcaRead
Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.
Alan WattsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Sigmund Freud | QuoteProject