Theodor Reik

Psychologist

1888-05-12

Books by Theodor Reik

Listening with the third ear
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Probleme der Religionspsychologie
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Of Love and Lust
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Quotes by Theodor Reik

It was strange to find that love does not spring from abundance and richness of the ego, but is a way out of inner distress and poverty. We were surprised to discover that our first love is not directed either to another person or to ourselves, but to an imaginary ideal ego, to an image of ourselves as we would like to be. There are stranger discoveries awaiting us the more deeply we grope in the dark and the further we intrude into the secret places of the human heart.
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He who licks his wounds cannot be affectionate
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The fear to love reaches sometimes the depth of a panic, resembles sometimes the fear to die.
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The fear to love reaches sometimes the depth of a panic, resembles sometimes the fear to die.
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He who licks his wounds cannot be affectionate
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It was strange to find that love does not spring from abundance and richness of the ego, but is a way out of inner distress and poverty. We were surprised to discover that our first love is not directed either to another person or to ourselves, but to an imaginary ideal ego, to an image of ourselves as we would like to be. There are stranger discoveries awaiting us the more deeply we grope in the dark and the further we intrude into the secret places of the human heart.
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In order to be happy oneself it is necessary to make at least one other person happy ... The secret of human happiness is not in self-seeking but in self-forgetting.
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Women in general want to be loved for what they are and men for what they accomplish.
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There is need of variety in sex, but not in love.
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The man who has never made a fool of himself in love will never be wise in love.
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The lover is a monotheist who knows that other people worship different gods but cannot himself imagine that there could be other gods.
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Even the wisest men make fools of themselves about women, and even the most foolish women are wise about men.
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Work and love-these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis.
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In our civilization, men are afraid that they will not be men enough and women are afraid that they might be considered only women.
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Romance fails us and so do friendships, but the relationship of parent and child, less noisy than all others, remains indelible and indestructible, the strongest relationship on earth.
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No person loving or admiring himself is alone.
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The small share of happiness attainable by man exists only insofar as he is able to cease to think of himself.
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Women see through each other, but they rarely look into themselves.
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