Quotes from Viktor E. Frankl

I was horrified, but this was just as well, because step by step we had to become accustomed to a terrible and immense horror.

Fue Lessing quien dijo en una ocasión: Hay cosas que deben haceros perder la razón, o entonces es que no tenéis ninguna razón que perder. Ante una situación anormal, la reacción anormal constituye una conducta normal.

Mientras esperábamos la ducha se nos hizo patente nuestra desnudez, en su sentido literal: éramos solamente un cuerpo. Nada más. Solo poseíamos la existencia desnuda. ¿Qué

Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land.

In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.

The prisoner of Auschwitz, in the first phase of shock, did not fear death. Even the gas chambers lost their horrors for him after the first few days—after all, they spared him the act of committing suicide.

In qualche modo, la sofferenza cessa di essere tale nel momento in cui trova un significato, come il significato di un sacrificio.

They form man's destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny.

we could say that most men in a concentration camp believed that the real opportunities of life had passed. Yet, in reality, there was an opportunity and a challenge. One could make a victory of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners.

The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.

inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche's words, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," could be the guiding mott

some of the prisoners attempted to find one on their own. It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future—sub specie aeternitatis. And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task.

Frankl approvingly quotes the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.

but even one such example is sufficient proof that man's inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.

mankind was apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom.

One literally became a number: dead or alive—that was unimportant; the life of a "number" was completely irrelevant.

Listen, Otto, if I don't get back home to my wife, and if you should see her again, then tell her that I talked of her daily, hourly. You remember. Secondly, I have loved her more than anyone. Thirdly, the short time I have been married to her outweighs everything, even all we have gone through here.

People have enough to live by but nothing to live for.

hand. When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.

We had literally lost the ability to feel pleased and had to relearn it slowly. Psychologically, what was happening to the liberated prisoners could be called "depersonalization." Everything appeared unreal, unlikely, as in a dream.

My interest does not lie in raising parrots that just rehash "their master's voice," but rather in passing the torch to "independent and inventive, innovative and creative spirits.

And these problems are growing increasingly crucial, for progressive automation will probably lead to an enormous increase in the leisure hours available to the average worker. The pity of it is that many of these will not know what to do with all their newly acquired free time.

El hombre es ese ser capaz de inventar las cámaras de gas de Auschwitz, pero también es el ser que ha entrado en esas mismas cámaras con la cabeza erguida y el Padrenuestro o el Shemá Israel en los labios.

there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.