Quotes About Dignity

A man counted only because he had a prison number. One literally became a number: dead or alive—that was unimportant; the life of a "number" was completely irrelevant.

He would hope to find us suffering proudly—not miserably—knowing how to die.

A man who looks miserable, down and out, sick and emaciated, and who cannot manage hard physical labor any longer … that is a 'Moslem.' Sooner or later, usually sooner, every 'Moslem' goes to the gas chambers. Therefore, remember: shave, stand and walk smartly; then you need not be afraid of gas

It is apparent that the mere knowledge that a man was either a camp guard or a prisoner tells us almost nothing. Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.

The boundaries between groups overlapped and we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men were angels and those were devils. Certainly, it was a considerable achievement for a guard or foreman to be kind to the prisoners in spite of all the camp's influences, and, on the other hand, the baseness of a prisoner who treated his own companions badly was exceptionally contemptible

Tam bir yaln?zl?k konumunda, insan kendini olumlu eylemle dile getiremediÄŸi, çektiÄŸi ac?lara doÄŸru bir tav?rla -onurlu bir tav?rla- katlanmaktan baÅŸka yapacak hiçbir ÅŸeyi olmad??? zaman, sevdiÄŸi insana iliÅŸkin içinde ta??d??? imgeye sevgiyle yoÄŸunlaÅŸarak doyuma ulaÅŸabiliyordu.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.

Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times. Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it. At one point, Frankl writes that a person "may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity

hay dos razas de hombres en el mundo y nada más que dos: la raza de los hombres decentes y la raza de los indecentes. Ambas se encuentran en todas partes y en todas las capas sociales. Ningún grupo se compone de hombres decentes o de hombres indecentes, así sin más ni más.

may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.

Frankl writes that a person "may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal." He concedes that only a few prisoners of the Nazis were able to do the former, "but even one such example is sufficient proof that man's inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.

But today's society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness.

In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Confounding the dignity of man with mere usefulness arises from a conceptual confusion that in turn may be traced back to the contemporary nihilism transmitted on many an academic campus

The past few years have certainly disenchanted us, but they have also shown us that what is human is still valid; they have taught us that it is all a question of the individual human being. After all, in the end, what was left was the human being! Because it was the human being that survived amidst all the filth ofthe recent past.

They must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and its meaning.

someone looks down on each of 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.

Con lo expuesto podemos concluir que hay dos razas de hombres en el mundo, solo dos: la de los hombres decentes y la de los indecentes. Ambas se mezclan en todas partes y en todas las capas sociales. Ningún grupo social se compone exclusivamente de hombres decentes o indecentes. En este sentido, ningún grupo es de «pura raza», y por ello había entre los guardias personas decentes.

must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and its meaning. I said that someone looks down on each of 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. And finally

De modo que cada hombre, incluso en condiciones trágicas, puede decidir quién quiere ser —espiritual y mentalmente— y conservar su dignidad humana.

make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate.

Qué es, en realidad, el hombre? Es el ser que siempre decide lo que es. Es quien ha inventado las cámaras de gas, pero también el que ha entrado en ellas con paso firme, musitando una oración.

A human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions,but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.