Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego Quotes

“As regards intellectual work it remains a fact, indeed, that great decisions in the realm 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

“A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.”
― Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

“He who knows how to wait need make no concessions.”
― Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

“And, finally, groups have never thirsted after
truth. They demand illusions, and cannot do without them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence
over what is real; they are almost as strongly influenced
by what is untrue as by what is true. They
have an evident tendency not to distinguish between
the two.”
― Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

“Here is yet another important consideration for
helping us to understand the individual in a group:
Moreover, by the mere fact that he forms part of
an organised group, a man descends several rungs
in the ladder of civilization. Isolated, he may be a
cultivated individual; in a crowd, he is a barbarian—
that is, a creature acting by instinct. He possesses
the spontaneity, the violence, the ferocity, and also
the enthusiasm and heroism of primitive beings.
He then dwells especially upon the lowering in
intellectual ability which an individual experiences when
he becomes merged in a group.”
― Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego