“At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father.”

—  Sigmund Freud , book Totem and Taboo

Totem and Taboo : Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1913)
1910s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father." by Sigmund Freud?
Sigmund Freud photo
Sigmund Freud 147
Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psycho… 1856–1939

Related quotes

Léon Bloy photo

“Woe to him who has not begged!
There is nothing more exalted than to beg.
God begs. The Angels beg. Kings, Prophets, and Saints beg.”

Léon Bloy (1846–1917) French writer, poet and essayist

Source: Pilgrim of the Absolute (1947), p. 1

Imre Kertész photo

“Auschwitz, I told her, appears to me in the image of a father; yes, the two terms, Auschwitz, and father, resonate the same echoes in me, and if the observation is that God is an exalted father, then God, too is revealed to me in the image of Auschwitz.”

Imre Kertész book Kaddish for an Unborn Child

Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)

Kevin Kelly photo

“There's nothing more addictive than being a god.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995)

Sigmund Freud photo

“The idea of a God was not a lie but a device of the unconscious which needed to be decoded by psychology. A personal god was nothing more than an exalted father-figure: desire for such a deity sprang from infantile yearnings for a powerful, protective father, for justice and fairness and for life to go on forever. God is simply a projection of these desires, feared and worshiped by human beings out of an abiding sense of helplessness. Religion belonged to the infancy of the human race; it had been a necessary stage in the transition from childhood to maturity. It had promoted ethical values which were essential to society. Now that humanity had come of age, however, it should be left behind.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Summary of Freud's view found in Karen Armstrong's 'A History of God' (1993), p. 409
Misattributed

Thales photo

“Nothing is more ancient than God, for He was never created”

Thales (-624–-547 BC) ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician

As quoted in Love and Live Or Kill and Die: Realities of the Destruction of Human Life (2009) by James H. Wilson, p. 72
Variants:
Strongest is Necessity because it governs all things.
As quoted in Symbolism of the Sphere: A Contribution to the History of Earlier Greek Philosophy (1977), by Otto Brendel p. 36
Nothing is more active than thought, for it travels over the universe, and nothing is stronger than necessity for all must submit to it.
As quoted in Business Management Controls: A Guide (2012) by John Kyriazoglou, p. 55
Context: Nothing is more ancient than God, for He was never created; nothing more beautiful than the world, it is the work of that same God; nothing is more active than thought, for it flies over the whole universe; nothing is stronger than necessity, for all must submit to it.

Warren Farrell photo

“Nothing threatens a father’s involvement in the family more than his obligation to be the family’s “financial womb,” creating “The Father’s ‘Catch-22’”: loving the family by being away from the family. It is the irony of traditional fatherhood: being a father by not being a father.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: Father and Child Reunion (2001), p. 90.

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Music is everything. God himself is nothing more than an acoustic hallucination.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Tears and Saints (1937)

Edith Hamilton photo

“None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry.”

Edith Hamilton (1867–1963) American teacher and writer

Source: The Greek Way (1930), Ch. 11

Báb photo

“Say, He Whom God shall make manifest is indeed the Primal Veil of God. Above this Veil ye can find nothing other than God, while beneath it ye can discern all things emanating from God. He is the Unseen, the Inaccessible, the Most Exalted, the Best Beloved.”

Báb (1819–1850) Iranian prophet; founder of the religion Bábism; venerated in the Bahá'í Faith

XVI, 17
The Kitáb-I-Asmá

Don Soderquist photo

“Bottom line: it is clear that few things will diminish your life more quickly and profoundly than being ungrateful. Conversely, nothing will enlarge your life more quickly and dramatically than gratitude. I know poor people who are convinced they are rich.”

Don Soderquist (1934–2016)

Don Soderquist “ Live Learn Lead to Make a Difference https://books.google.com/books?id=s0q7mZf9oDkC&lpg=pg=PP1&dq=Don%20Soderquist&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false, Thomas Nelson, April 2006 p. 37.
On Expressing Gratitude

Related topics