Neurotic Quotes

• If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell.

  Sylvia Plath

  Two, Neurosis, Hell

  The Bell Jar ch. 8 (1963)

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• I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success of money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritual horizon. Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears.

  Carl Jung

  Spiritual, People, Personality

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• A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Sad, Jealousy, Knowledge

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.236, Penguin

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• A neurotic is a man who builds a castle in the air. A psychotic is the man who lives in it. A psychiatrist is the man who collects the rent.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Science, Men, Air

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• Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.

  Anatole France

  Inspirational, Acceptance, Risk

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• Neurotics would like to sleep all the time, and to be awakened only when there is good news.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Sleep, News, Awakened

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.59, BookBaby

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• No good neurotic finds it difficult to be both opinionated and indecisive.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Indecisive, Difficult, Opinionated

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.42, BookBaby

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• The neurotic always wishes people would let him alone - until they do.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  People, Wish

  "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook". Book by Mignon McLaughlin, 1981.

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• There are three iron links in the neurotic's chain: unloving, unlovable, unloved.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Iron, Three, Links

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.32, BookBaby

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• The neurotic doesn't know how to cope with his emotional bills; some he keeps paying over and over, others he never pays at all.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Emotional, Pay, Bills

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.97, BookBaby

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• Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.

  Carl Jung

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  Carl Gustav Jung (1969). “Psychology and religion: west and east”

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• So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.

  Gene Wilder

  Ideas, Trying, Too Much

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The neurotic usually obeys his own Golden Rule: Hate thy neighbor as thyself.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Hate, Golden, Neighbor

  "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook". Book by Mignon McLaughlin, 1981.

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• Neurotics dream of a good life, or a great suicide note.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Suicide, Dream, Good Life

  "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook". Book by Mignon McLaughlin, 1981.

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• The neurotic thinks himself both Hamlet and Claudius, in a world that belongs to Polonius.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Thinking, World, Polonius

  "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook". Book by Mignon McLaughlin, 1981.

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• The expectation that every neurotic phenomenon can be cured may, I suspect, be derived from the layman's belief that the neuroses are something quite unnecessary which have no right whatever to exist. Whereas in fact they are severe, constitutionally fixed illnesses, which rarely restrict themselves to only a few attacks but persist as a rule over long periods throughout life.

  Sigmund Freud

  Life, Long, Expectations

  Sigmund Freud (1965). “New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis”

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• Neurotics think of the past with resentment, and the future with dread; the present just doesn't exist.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Past, Thinking, Resentment

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.108, BookBaby

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• The neurotic longs to touch bottom, so at least he won't have that to worry about anymore.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Worry, Bottom

  "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook". Book by Mignon McLaughlin, 1981.

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• I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.

  Anais Nin

  Ordinary World, Want, Proportion

  Diary entries, March 25, 1933.

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• A neurotic can perfectly well be a literary genius, but his greatest danger is always that he will not recognize when he is dull.

  Louis Auchincloss

  Genius, Dull, Danger

  1965 Pioneers and Caretakers: A Study of Nine American Women Novelists.

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• A certain degree of neurosis is of inestimable value as a drive, especially to a psychologist.

  Sigmund Freud

  Degrees, Neurosis, Psychologist

  "Analysis with Freud" by Joseph Wortis, 1954.

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• Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.

  Lionel Trilling

  Neurosis, Judgment, Ends

  "Partisan Review: 50th Anniversary Edition", ed. William Philips, 1985.

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• We have long observed that every neurosis has the result, and therefore probably the purpose, of forcing the patient out of real life, of alienating him from actuality.

  Sigmund Freud

  Real, Long, Purpose

  Sigmund Freud (2008). “General Psychological Theory: Papers on Metapsychology”, p.1, Simon and Schuster

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• In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient's condition. Usually this is a member of the family.

  Alfred Adler

  Style, Suffering, Opponents

  Alfred Adler (1964). “PROBLEMS OF NEUROSIS: A BOOK OF CASE HISTORIES”

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• The way the neurotic sees it: bars on his door mean that he's locked in; bars on your door mean that he's locked out.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Mean, Doors, Bars

  "The Complete Neurotic's Notebook". Book by Mignon McLaughlin, 1981.

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