Quote of the Day: Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud on Success After Struggling

Alani VargasSat, April 11, 2026 at 7:45 AM UTC

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Sigmund Freud’s name is associated with a lot of things, from psychological theories to different terms (such as a "Freudian slip"). However, there’s a lot more to Freud than you might know. This makes him a good candidate for our quote of the day, considering his writing appeared in many forms, and he had a lot of influential ideas to share.

Born on May 6, 1856, in Austria, Sigmund Freud went on to become a neurologist and the father of psychoanalysis. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), psychoanalysis is a form of therapy that works to get to the root cause of people’s problems. To do this, the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) reported that this practice looks at the “unconscious manifestations in a person’s life” and at what influenced them.

Examples of psychoanalytical discoveries attributed to Freud include the unconscious, regression, free association, transference and dreams as wish-fulfillments, per the IPA. Some of the most well-known theories and discoveries were sexual in nature, from libido to early psychosexual development, to his most well-known theory: the Oedipus Complex (this is the theory that children develop a “desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex” along with a rivalry with or jealousy for the parent of the same sex, per Britannica).

As you can imagine, a lot of Freud’s theories were offensive to many (and still are today), but no one can deny how his ideas permeated through pop culture, Western culture and psychology as we know them today, even if psychoanalysis has declined in regards to diagnostic and clinical practices.

Freud died at the age of 83 in 1939, and his many thoughts and words make for some great quotes, including the one we’re highlighting today. It’s pretty inspiring and can give you some clarity when you’re struggling or experiencing failure.

Related: Quote of the Day: Robert Frost on Resilience and Life Lessons

Quote of the Day by Sigmund Freud

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“One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”

This quote appears in the 1960 book Letters of Sigmund Freud, selected and edited by Ernst L. Freud; it’s a collection of letters Freud sent to many different people, from Albert Einstein to H.G. Wells and more.

This is from Letter Number 127, originally written in German by Freud to Carl Jung on Sept. 19, 1907. Freud was urging Jung to keep going even though people opposed his work or whatever he was doing. The full, translated quote is:

“Let us found our journal. People will grumble, buy and read it. One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”

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The journal Freud is talking about here is one that he wanted to start, called Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse.

He and Jung were longtime collaborators until they split due to differing ideas regarding psychology in 1913, as Britannica reported. Jung came up with the concept of analytical psychology, which differed from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, placing more emphasis on immediate conflicts rather than childhood traumas or issues, per Britannica.

Related: Quote of the Day: Eleanor Roosevelt on Working Toward Peace

Deeper Meaning of Sigmund Freud’s Quote—Success After Struggle

When you’re going through a tough time—whether that’s the loss of a job, the death of someone close to you or you’re going through a particularly rough patch at work or in your relationship—it can be hard to see how you will get through it. You can’t even remember what life was like before your hardship, sometimes, so how are you supposed to imagine happier, better times ahead? Because of this, it can be really easy to get swallowed up by your despair, falling into a depression or anxiety spiral.

Freud’s quote is simply reminding us that there will come a day in the future when you’ll look back on your struggles, and you might be grateful for it. That’s generous, and it might be hard to hear that your current dark situation will eventually be “beautiful” to you, but still. The sentiment has some weight. Kind of like "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," a la Kelly Clarkson (or Friedrich Nietzsche).

While it might not apply to all situations without it sounding like toxic positivity, there are definitely a lot of scenarios that you might look back on and be thankful for your struggles and see your hardships as beautiful. Or at the very least, you might look back on them fondly or see them as not as bad as they were when you were in the thick of it. And having that reminder might be what you need to keep going to find yourself on the other side of an anxious or disastrous circumstance.

In the specific instance that Freud said this statement to Jung, he was referring to academic or professional work. And in those scenarios, it can be helpful to change your perspective. Instead of getting hung up on little details or failures—even big ones—you should remember your goals, the bigger picture and that you’ll have successes in the future. And especially in this situation, you probably will eventually see your struggles as beautiful because of the outcome. Even if that outcome was simply that you completed your goal.

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More Quotes from Sigmund Freud -

"Civilized man has traded a part of his happiness for a part of security."

“He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”

“Are there not very important things which can only reveal themselves, under certain conditions and at certain times, by quite feeble indications?”

“Today we do not feel quite sure of our new set of beliefs, and the old ones still exist within us.”

“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”

“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”

“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.”

“Philosophy sometimes seems to me like a person who keeps cleaning their glasses and they still stay dim.”

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This story was originally published by Parade on Apr 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Life section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”