Sigmund Freud

1856–1939 · Founder of psychoanalysis · after Dmitry Merezhkovsky

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, published Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood in 1910. In it he cast Leonardo as a mind out of step with his era — “like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep” — a simile he attributed to the Russian Silver Age novelist Dmitry Merezhkovsky, whose The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci Freud counted among his favorite books. The internet later collapsed this outsider’s observation into a first-person line and pinned it on Leonardo himself.

Traced to source

4 quotes we’ve traced to Sigmund Freud

“I awoke, only to find that the rest of the world is still asleep”

Disputed

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”

Disputed

“This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever”

Disputed

“Time spent with cats is never wasted”

Disputed

Not actually Sigmund Freud

Often misattributed to Sigmund Freud

Famous lines widely pinned on Sigmund Freud that we’ve traced to someone else.

“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity”

actually Don B. Kates Jr. (his sentence, inverted)

“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes”

actually @debihope

“The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water”

actually Woods Hutchinson (phrasing) & G. Stanley Hall (simile)

On the research bench

Commonly pinned on Sigmund Freud — under review

1 line flagged as pinned on Sigmund Freud and queued for a full source trace — not yet verified.

“The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.”

Disputed

Did they really say it?

Thought Sigmund Freud said something else?

Type a quote you think Sigmund Freud said — we’ll tell you what we know, or point you to the best sources.