Quotes from Viktor Frankl

Vivir es sufrir, sobrevivir es hallarle sentido al sufrimiento.

Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.

I am convinced that in the final analysis, there is no situation that does not contain within it the seed of a meaning.

We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation. . .we are challenged to change ourselves.

Only slowly could these men be guided back to the commonplace truth that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them. We had to strive to lead them back to this truth.

Life is like being at dentist. You always think that the worst is yet to come, & yet it is over already.

Precisely this one, which I had intended to be published anonymously so that it could never build any reputation on the part of the author, did become a success.... Don't aim at success - the more you aim and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued, it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.

Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!...imagine first that the present is past and, second, that the past may yet be changed and amended.

What matters is not the features of our character or the drives and instincts per se, but rather the stand we take toward them. And the capacity to take such a stand is what makes us human beings.

Los que hemos vuelto de allí gracias a multitud de casualidades fortuitas o milagros —como cada cual prefiera llamarlos— lo sabemos bien: los mejores de entre nosotros no regresaron.

Aber wenn es auch nur ein einziger gewesen wäre – er genügte als Zeuge dafür, daß der Mensch innerlich stärker sein kann als sein äußerliches Schicksal, und nicht nur im Konzentrationslager.

Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue... as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.

someone looks down on each of Experiences in a Concentration Camp 91 us in difficult hours—a friend, a wife, somebody alive or dead, or a God—and he would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find us suffering proudly—not miserably—knowing how to die.

Când nu mai suntem capabili s? schimb?m o situaÅ£ie, suntem provocaÅ£i s? ne schimb?m noi înÅŸine.

tengo mis dudas acerca de que sea posible hablar de Dios, y a veces sospecho que quizás lo único factible sea hablar con Dios

Si existe Dios, estoy convencido de que no tomará a mal que alguien lo intercambie con el propio Yo y se dirija a Él como a un Tú.

Si, como hombre adulto, debió usted sufrir el infierno del campo de concentración, o, como dice la Biblia, apurar hasta las heces el cáliz del dolor, y fue capaz de superar todo esto sin odio y con amor a la humanidad, es usted una prueba viva de Dios.

Podstata lidské existence spo?ívá v její sebetranscendenci. Být ?lovÄ›kem znamená vždy už být zam??en a nastaven na nÄ›co nebo nÄ›koho, být oddán nÄ›jakému dílu.

For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than one-self or as a by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

Having shown the beneficial impact of meaning orientation, I turn to the detrimental influence of that feeling of which so many patients complain today, namely the feeling of the total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives. They lack the awareness of a meaning worth living for. They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves; they are caught in that situation which I have called the existential vacuum.

For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

Vivir significa asumir la responsabilidad de encontrar la respuesta correcta a las cuestiones que la existencia nos plantea, cumplir con las obligaciones que la vida nos asigna a cada uno en cada instante particular.

U ?oveku se kriju obe mogu?nosti: svinja i svetac. Šta ?e neko ostvariti zavisi od njegovih odluka, a ne od uslova. Viktor Frankl: Zašto se niste ubili