"Many an attack of depression is nothing but the expression of regret at having to be virtuous."

“People who do not understand themselves have a craving for understanding — a thing which is rather surmised and never spoken than known and clothed in words.”

“In reality, we are still children. We want to find a playmate for our thoughts and feelings.”

“Anxiety is fear of one's self.”

“Many times I had spoken about "mental bipolarity" and proved that our affects are bipolar. Desire and disgust, love and hate, will-to-power and will-to-submission, are composed of negative and positive parts like the current of electricity. My contention was that any human affect has its own counterpart. Later Bleuler described this fact as "ambivalence," a term that was accepted by everybody, whereas previously they had laughed at my discovery, and given me the nickname "Stekel with his Bipolarity.”

“Love at first sight is a revival of an infantile impression. The first love object reappears in a different disguise.”

“Truth is not always the best basis for happiness. There are certain lies which may constitute a far better and more secure foundation of happiness. There are people who perish when their eyes are opened.”