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The 40 best quotes by Anna Freud

The 40 best quotes by Anna Freud

March 24, 2024

The word Freud is associated more often with Sigmund, the famous psychologist who created psychoanalysis. However, her youngest daughter, Anna Freud, was also an influential psychologist who had a great impact on psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and child psychology.

In this article we will see small fragments of this author's thought from a selection of Anna Freud's phrases .

  • Related article: "The 90 Best Phrases of Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis"

The best quotes of Anna Freud

Throughout her life, Anna Freud pronounced or wrote many reflections that remain for history. In this article you can find a compilation of your best phrases.


1. When parents' feelings are ineffective or overly ambivalent or when the mother's emotions are temporarily compromised elsewhere, children feel lost

Many times we have the habit of blaming children for all evils. The education of parents is behind their behavior.

2. Laziness may seem attractive, but work gives satisfaction

Work is synonymous with health, especially if you do what you like most.

3. They can silence us, but they can not prevent us from having our own opinions

Society tries to mold our thinking, although we can think and criticize independently.


4. Sex is something that you do. Sexuality is something that you are

His father, Sigmund Freud, is the creator of psychoanalysis, and one of its main components is the psychosexual theory.

5. When the error becomes collective acquires the strength of a truth

Whether true or not, cultural thought has a great influence on people's way of thinking, and few are capable of questioning it even if it is wrong.

6. How wonderful it is that no one needs to wait even a single moment before beginning to improve the world

We can all put our grain of sand to change the world if it is what we want. One of Anna Freud's phrases with more social content.

7. We live trapped, between the past stirred and examined and a future that awaits our work

The past exerts a great influence on us and greatly conditions our life if we do not remedy it.


8. A first visit to an asylum is always a shock

Visiting an asylum can have a strong impact on many people.

9. If something does not satisfy you, do not be surprised. We call that life

People are nonconformist by nature.

10. That one lives without being able to judge oneself, criticize what one has achieved, and still enjoy what one does, is unimaginable to me

There are people who deceive themselves to avoid having to face reality.

11. Sometimes the most beautiful thing is precisely the one that comes unexpectedly and not deserved, therefore, something truly given as a present

Excessive expectations can lead to frustration. On the other hand, when something comes to us by surprise it can make us very happy.

  • Related article: "Perfectionist personality: the disadvantages of perfectionism"

12. Not loving us carries with it many problems

Loving oneself is very beneficial for our well-being and for our self-esteem .

13. Everyone says in a surprised way that I have grown up ... they are so stupid and do not realize that I'm just standing

A quote from Anna Freud with a touch of humor.

14. A collective failure does not have the same dimensions as an individual failure

When there are many people who are wrong, less bad seems the failure.

15. What I have always wanted for me is much more primitive. It's probably just the affection of the people I'm in contact with, and their good opinion of me

A phrase by Anna Freud that invites deep reflection.

16. In our dreams we can cook eggs exactly as we want them, but we can not eat them

Dreams are not something real and therefore we can not live on them.

17. I'm lucky I do not have children

Anna Freud had no sons. He married Ely Bernays , the brother of Sigmund Freud's wife, Martha Bernays, and had four daughters.

18. I'm no longer afraid to say nothing

A quote that refers to the fear of being silent.

19. How can one know everything about people?

People can not know everything in this life. There is always room to learn.

20. Things are not what we would like them to be. There is only one way to deal with it: try to be good with yourself

Acceptance is key to emotional well-being, so we must learn to accept disappointments.

21. Sigmund Freud continually emphasized how much is left unexplained. With the other psychoanalytic writers, everything is always fixed and known

Anna Freud praising her father and highlighting how humble he was at recognizing that he still had a lot to learn.

22Sigmund Freud always made it clear that he would like to know that I am much more rational and lucid than the girls and women he knows during his hours as a psychoanalyst

A reference to the expectations that Anna's father had about her.

23. Experience has made me learn a lot about this life

Experience is one of the best ways to learn. It is what it is known as experiential learning .

24. I was looking outside of myself to find strength and confidence but these come from within. They have always been there.

A way of saying that self-confidence comes from oneself.

25. We are only aware of the empty space in the forest, which yesterday was full of trees

Many times we can not look inside, but it is easy to look outside.

26. If I have a stupid day, everything seems wrong

Everything goes wrong when we have a negative mentality . It makes us see the world in a pessimistic way.

27. I do not see the misery there is, but the beauty that still remains

One way to say that it is better to see the glass half full than half empty.

28. Children usually do not blame themselves for being lost. They are adults

Even as adults, there are things that we can still learn from the little ones.

29. Everything becomes so problematic by basic failures: by a discontent with myself

When one is not well with who he is, it is possible that problems arise in his life.

30. My different personalities leave me alone right now

A date with a touch of irony. It means that people can behave in different ways depending on the situation.

31. Why do we act as if everything were friendship and trustworthiness when basically everything everywhere is full of sudden hatred and ugliness?

It's good to see the good side of things, but you also have to keep your feet on the ground and be realistic.

32. I was lucky to be thrown abruptly into reality

The reality is that we have to face it, because if we do not run the risk of suffer more than the account because of frustration .

33. Sometimes I think I'm a great actress

In relation to how people can adapt to the different environments that are presented to us,

34. Who promised you that there was only pleasure and enjoyment in this life?

Life is full of good times and bad times. To think that it will always be a path of roses is a mistake.

35. The person I learned the most is my father

A phrase that makes clear reference to Sigmund Freud, his father and teacher.

36. Many things become a problem because of how we are

Our way of being and interpreting events can make life a problem.

37. A person can feel lonely, even when many people want it

A person with low self-esteem can feel truly alone.

38. Creative minds are known to be able to survive any kind of bad training

There are lies that have been worked so hard that they seem true.

39. Sometimes the most beautiful is, precisely, what comes unexpectedly and does not derive from work

Working can be nice When we are passionate about our work . But outside of work many good things happen too.

40. Who is happy makes others happy too

When someone feels good about himself, he may make others feel good.


Top 20 Sigmund Freud Quotes (Author of The Interpretation of Dreams) (March 2024).


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