Quotes from Viktor E. Frankl

What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness

Tell me Master, what is the best move in the world?

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

just such an exceptionally difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself.

quoted from Nietzsche: "Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker." (That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.)

I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful.

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you. There is a scene

human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy

The salvation of man is through love and in love. I

And how does a human being go about finding meaning? As Charlotte Bühler has stated: "All we can do is study the lives of people who seem to have found their answers to the questions of what ultimately human life is about as against those who have not."6

is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain

when we saw a comrade smoking his own cigarette, we knew he had given up faith in his strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned

meaning is possible even in spite of suffering—provided, certainly, that the suffering is unavoidable.

In actual fact, boredom is now causing, and certainly bringing to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than distress.

The logotherapist's role consists of widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the whole spectrum of potential meaning becomes conscious and visible to him.

rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a

shave daily, stand and walk smartly, and you'll look fit for work

But not only creativeness and enjoyment are meaningful. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.

Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. These

Was Du erlebst, kann keine Macht der Welt Dir rauben." (What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.) Not only our experiences, but all we have done, whatever great thoughts we may have had, and all we have suffered, all this is not lost, though it is past; we have brought it into being.

Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him—mentally and spiritually.

sub specie aeternitatis.

love goes far beyond the physical person of the beloved. it finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self

Meaning orientation had subsided, and consequently the seeking of immediate pleasure had taken over.