There is something very intriguing about, for example, the sense of accomplishment that a small child has, which you might be able to reduce to aggression and libido, but which might also have some independent existence. — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
“Cotton Mather lusted all his life for the presidency of Harvard, a post his father had held, and which the son affected to despise, especially after others were chosen; he was a prig and a meddler; an unscrupulous ideologue and a windy orator; a scribbler who praised simplicity in flowery circumlocutions, so anxious to see his production in print that… — Peter Gay Copy Share
And my interest in history was, and remains, very strong: what I wanted was to understand certain things better by understanding them psychoanalytically. — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
Freud, Jung thought, had been a great discoverer of facts about the mind, but far too inclined to leave the solid ground of "critical reason and common sense." Freud for his part criticized Jung for being gullible about occult phenomena and infatuated with Oriental religions; he viewed with sardonic and unmitigated skepticism Jung's defense of religious feelings as an integral… — Peter Gay Copy Share
Since God is silent, man is his own master; he must live in a disenchanted world, submit everything to criticism, and make his own… — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
“The need to live by secure, sharply etched classifications is buried deep in the human mind and one of its earliest demands; simplicity allays anxieties by defeating discriminations. Real situations are rarely clear-cut, real feelings often nests of ambivalence. This is something the adult learns to recognize and to tolerate, if he is fortunate; it is a strenuous insight from… — Peter Gay Copy Share
With the passage of years, not all of Dicken's readers remained infatuated with his pathos. One generation's sublimity became another generation's kitsch. — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
Every historian has informally an anthropology, without ever using the word. — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
I decided that what I really wanted to do was to make my writing in history deeper, if that's the right word to use.… — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
The ideas of theologians are refuted by their adversaries, the ideas of scientists are refuted by their followers. — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
To have a liberal temperament is a kind of psychological boon, To be able to understand that someone you disagree with is not just… — Peter Gay Copy Share Image
