Neurotic Quotes - Page 4

• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Knowing we’re saved by grace but still living under the law makes for a spiritually neurotic person.

  Beth Moore

  Law, Knowing, Grace

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• Ben Stiller isn't funny - honest. Ben Stiller is very funny, and smart, and cute, too, in a neurotic, New York kind of way.

  Manohla Dargis

  Cute, New York, Smart

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I have a disturbing problem with losing things. My vulnerability to loss-distress could properly be labeled not only inordinate, but neurotic.

  Dick Cavett

  Loss, Losing, Problem

  Dick Cavett (2010). “Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets”, p.77, Macmillan

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• It is not the delicate neurotic person who is prone to angina, but the robust, the vigorous in mind and body, the keen and ambitious man, the indicator of whose engines is always at full speed ahead.

  William Osler

  Men, Mind, Ambitious

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• By trying to control everything we become very neurotic, more and more desperate. It's a huge tragic thing.

  Charlotte Rampling

  Trying, Desperate, Tragic

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• Well, I think in my first two novels, both the characters are pretty neurotic, which I would say that I am.

  Curtis Sittenfeld

  Character, Thinking, Two

  "Curtis Sittenfeld: Fictionalizing A First Lady". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. October 13, 2008.

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• Thus every writer's motto reads: mad I cannot be, sane I do not deign to be, neurotic I am.

  Roland Barthes

  Writing, Mad, Motto

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• I have never doubted that religious phenomena are only to be understood on the pattern of the individual neurotic symptoms familiar to us.

  Sigmund Freud

  Religious, Patterns, Individual

  Sigmund Freud, James Strachey, Anna Freud, Carrie Lee Rothgeb (1964). “The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud”

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• Perfection, fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity. A more sensible alternative is excellence. Striving for excellence is stimulating and rewarding; striving for perfection--in practically anything--is both neurotic and futile.

  Ed Bliss

  Perfection, Excellence, Alternatives

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• An innings of neurotic violence, of eccentric watchfulness, of brainless impetuosity and incontinent savagery - it was an extraordinary innings, a masterpiece and it secured the Ashes for England [on Pietersen's Ashes winning innings, 2005

  Simon Barnes

  Winning, Ashes, Eccentric

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• To injure another person through atonement is one of the most subtle devices of the neurotic, as when, for example, he indulges in self-accusations.

  Alfred Adler

  Self, Indulge In, Example

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• I guess I can be a little neurotic sometimes, but can't everybody?

  Rebecca Romijn

  Littles, Sometimes, I Can

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• As a young boy, I read 'Cheaper by the Dozen' and immediately became neurotic about my use of time. It taxed me severely, but only for the next 50 years. But I think it also allowed me to discipline myself to sit in the chair and be a writer, where one of the most needed qualities is patience.

  Ridley Pearson

  Thinking, Boys, Years

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• I'm incredibly neurotic and a control freak. I like the thought that if there's going to be anyone to blame it's going to be me.

  Laura Marling

  Freak, Blame, Ifs

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

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• During the lifetime of Japan I became very neurotic, very paranoid.

  David Sylvian

  Japan, Lifetime, Paranoid

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• I like to work out every day. I run, walk, do machines. I'm not neurotic about food. My rule is, don't let yourself get over a certain weight. If you gain 5lb, stop before it gets worse.

  Andie MacDowell

  Running, Work Out, Machines

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