Quotes from Viktor E. Frankl

there is also purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces.

We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly.

What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? "No, thank you," he will think. "Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.

What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.

Apart from that strange kind of humor, another sensation seized us: curiosity. I have experienced this kind of curiosity before, as a fundamental reaction toward certain strange circumstances. When my life was once endangered by a climbing accident, I felt only one sensation at the critical moment: curiosity, curiosity as to whether I should come out of it alive or with a fractured skull or some other injuries.

Whatever our future may hold: We still want to say "yes" to life, Because one day the time will come— Then we will be free! If the prisoners of Buchenwald, tortured and worked and starved nearly to death, could find some hope in those lyrics despite their unending suffering, Frankl asks us, shouldn't we, living far more comfortably, be able to say "Yes" to life in spite of everything life brings us?

I have termed this constitutive characteristic "the self-transcendence of human existence.

man is no more than a product of many conditional and environmental factors—be they of a biological, psychological or sociological nature?

La libertad se encuentra en peligro de degenerar en mera arbitrariedad salvo si se ejerce en términos de responsabilidad.

suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom-which cannot be taken away-that makes life meaningful and purposeful.

there is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past—the potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized—and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.

One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.

From this one may see that there is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past—the potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized—and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.

Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.

Es más, con frecuencia el vacío existencial se presenta de forma enmascarada. A veces la frustración de la voluntad de sentido se compensa con la voluntad de poder en su expresión más burda: el deseo de tener dinero. En otras ocasiones el vacío de la voluntad de sentido se llena con la voluntad de placer. Y eso explica que la frustración existencial suela provocar un desenfreno libidinoso, e incluso que esas pulsiones de la libido se mezclen con las agresivas.

Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.

When we are no longer able to change a situation

we are challenged to change ourselves.

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. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

That's where your friend is, floating up to Heaven

You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering—to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her.

Nos embrujaba la belleza de la naturaleza, de la que el cautiverio nos privó durante tanto tiempo.

Un renombrado investigador en psicología ha manifestado que la reclusión en un campo de concentración podía denominarse «vida provisional». En virtud de nuestra experiencia, completaríamos esa expresión añadiendo que es una «vida provisional de duración desconocida».

Instead, either he wishes to do what other people do (conformism), or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).