“Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.”

— Sigmund Freud , book The Interpretation of Dreams

Source: The Interpretation of Dreams

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Sigmund Freud 147

Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psycho… 1856–1939

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“The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.”

Sigmund Freud book The Interpretation of Dreams

The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), from The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey.
At any rate the interpretation of dreams is the via regia to a knowledge of the unconscious in the psychic life.
Alternate translation by Abraham Arden Brill, p. 483 http://books.google.com/books?id=OSYJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA483#v=onepage&q&f=false. Freud did use the Latin phrase via regia in the original as opposed to translating it into the German of the surrounding text.
"Royal road" or via regia is an allusion to a statement attributed to Euclid.
1900s

“There is no royal road to geometry.”
Non est regia ad Geometriam via.

Euclid (-323–-285 BC) Greek mathematician, inventor of axiomatic geometry

μὴ εἶναι βασιλικὴν ἀτραπὸν ἐπί γεωμετρίαν, Non est regia [inquit Euclides] ad Geometriam via
Reply given when the ruler Ptolemy I Soter asked Euclid if there was a shorter road to learning geometry than through Euclid's Elements.The "Royal Road" was the road built across Anatolia and Persia by Darius I which allowed rapid communication and troop movement, but use of ἀτραπός (rather than ὁδός) conveys the connotation of "short cut".
The Greek is from Proclus (412–485 AD) in Commentary on the First Book of Euclid's Elements, the Latin translation is by Francesco Barozzi, 1560) the English translation follows Glenn R. Morrow (1970), p. 57 http://books.google.com/books?id=JZEHj2fEmqAC&q=royal#v=snippet&q=royal&f=false.
Attributed

“There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.”

Anthony Trollope book Barchester Towers

Source: Barchester Towers (1857), Ch. 20; this derives from an expression attributed to Euclid.

“Which road, which road did you take
That brought you here at last?

No road, no road did I take.
I leaped, I leaped from dream to dream.”

Franz Werfel (1890–1945) Austrian-Bohemian author

“The path to perfection is difficult to men in every lot; there is no royal road for rich or poor. But difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage.”

William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman

"Self-Culture", an address in Boston (September 1838)
Context: The path to perfection is difficult to men in every lot; there is no royal road for rich or poor. But difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. And how much has it already overcome! Under what burdens of oppression has it made its way for ages What mountains of difficulty has it cleared! And with all this experience, shall we say that the progress of the mass of men is to be despaired of; that the chains of bodily necessity are too strong and ponderous to be broken by the mind; that servile, unimproving drudgery is the unalterable condition of the multitude of the human race?