The goal towards which the pleasure principle impels us / of becoming happy / is not attainable: yet we may not / nay, cannot / give up the efforts to come nearer to realization of it by some means or other.

We are so constituted that we can gain intense pleasure only from the contrast, and only very little from the condition itself.

The goal towards which the pleasure principle impels us - of becoming happy - is not attainable: yet we may not - nay, cannot - give up the efforts to come nearer to realization of it by some means or other.

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.

Life as we find it, is too hard for us: it brings us too many pains, disappointments and impossible tasks. In order to bear it, we cannot dispense with palliative measures…There are three such measures: powerful deflections, which cause us to make light of our misery; substitute satisfactions, which diminish it; and intoxicating substances which make us insensitive to it.

Conscience is the internal perception of the reaction of a particular wish operating within us