Quotes from Viktor E. Frankl

Ceux qui ont vécu dans les camps se souviennent de ces prisonniers qui allaient, de baraque en baraque, consoler leurs semblables, leur offrant les derniers morceaux de pain qui leur restaient. Même s'il s'agit de cas rares, ceux-ci nous apportent la preuve qu'on peut tout enlever à un homme excepté une chose, la dernière des libertés humaines : celle de décider de sa conduite, quelles que soient les circonstances dans lesquelles il se trouve.

one cannot earn love; love is not a reward, but a blessing. On the path of love a person thus receives by "grace" the things he would otherwise have to strive for or obtain through action: the realization of both his uniqueness and his individuality. For it is the nature of love that makes us see our loved one in their uniqueness and individuality.

On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were prepared to use every means, honest and other- wise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles—whatever one may choose to call them—we know: the best of us did not return.

It is not true that the deed is irretrievably lost in the past, but rather that it is indelibly stamped in the past!

Et si la vie a un sens, il faut qu'il y ait un sens à la souffrance. La souffrance, comme le destin et la mort, fait partie de la vie. Sans la souffrance et la mort, la vie humaine demeure incomplète.

Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, "I have nothing to expect from life any more." What sort of answer can one give to that?

When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer [...] his unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden.

Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time wrongly as you are about to act now

78% said their first goal was finding a purpose and meaning to my life.

Friedrich Nietzsche's words, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how

From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people

Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

Logotherapy focuses rather on the future, that is to say on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future.

Vivez chaque moment de votre vie comme si vous viviez pour la deuxième fois.

To have a good conscience can never be the basis of a morally good existence; it is, rather, the result.

Cela va mal dans le monde, mais cela ira encore plus mal à moins que chacun de nous ne fasse de son mieux.

P]erfectionism is one of the typical hindrances on the way toward perfection.

Ng??i ta không có tá»± do ?? khÆ°á»›c t? b?t h?nh hay ch?y tr?n kh?i bi k?ch, nhÆ°ng có tá»± do lá»±a ch?n thái Ä'á»™ c?a mình trÆ°á»›c nh?ng gì x?y ra

Peace of mind is not a purpose but a result of our ethical behavior.

True human wholeness must include the spiritual as an essential element. Moreover, the spiritual is precisely that constituent which is primarily responsible for the unity of man.

Psychotherapy is like an equation with two unknowns—Psi equals x plus y. The one unknown is that ever variable and incalculable factor, the personality of the Doctor, and the other unknown is the individuality of the patient.

Psychotherapy cannot rest content with making man capable of enjoying pleasure or of doing a day's work; it must also make him capable of bearing suffering, in a very definite sense.

Modern man needs to be considered as more than a psycho-physical reality. His spiritual existence cannot be neglected. He is not a mere organism. He is a person.

Our industrialized society is out to satisfy all needs, and our consumer society is even out to create needs in order to satisfy them; but the most human of all human needs—the need to see a meaning in one's life—remains unsatisfied. People may have enough to live by; but more often than not they do not have anything to live for.