Theodor Reik Quotes

…if you cannot hate you cannot love. If you cannot bite you can not kiss. If you cannot curse you cannot bless. Who cannot be a good hater will be a poor lover.

~ Theodor Reik

The fear to love reaches sometimes the depth of a panic, resembles sometimes the fear to die.

~ Theodor Reik

He who licks his wounds cannot be affectionate

~ Theodor Reik

It was strange to find that love does not spring from abundance and richness of the ego, but is a way out of inner distress and poverty. We were surprised to discover that our first love is not directed either to another person or to ourselves, but to an imaginary ideal ego, to an image of ourselves as we would like to be. There are stranger discoveries awaiting us the more deeply we grope in the dark and the further we intrude into the secret places of the human heart.

~ Theodor Reik

In our civilization men are afraid that they will not be men enough and women are afraid that they might be considered only women.

~ Theodor Reik

Even the wisest men make fools of themselves about women and even the most foolish women are wise about men.

~ Theodor Reik