Quotes About Adversity

I think it was Lessing who said, There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behaviour.

we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it.

a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the "size" of human suffering is absolutely relative. It

I said that each of us had to ask himself what irreplaceable losses he had suffered up to then. I speculated that for most of them these losses had really been few. Whoever was still alive had reason for hope. Health, family, happiness, professional abilities, fortune, position in society - all these were things that could be achieved again or restored.

Varying this, 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.

I know that without the suffering, the growth that I have achieved would have been impossible." Is this to say that suffering is indispensable to the discovery of meaning? In no way. I only insist that meaning is available in spite of—nay, even through—suffering, provided, as noted in Part Two of this book, that the suffering is unavoidable. If it is avoidable, the meaningful thing to do is to remove its cause, for unnecessary suffering is masochistic rather than heroic.

As a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry, I am fully aware of the extent to which man is subject to biological, psychological and sociological conditions. But in addition to being a professor in two fields I am a survivor of four camps —concentration camps, that is—and as such I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable."17

the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect.

Whatever we had gone through could still be an asset to us in the future. And

Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him.

de Nietzsche: «Quien tiene un porqué para vivir puede soportar casi cualquier cómo». Yo veo en esas palabras un motor válido para la psicoterapia. Los campos de concentración nazis dan fe de que los prisioneros más aptos para la supervivencia fueron los que se sabían esperados

verja del campo y un flamante camión, de color aluminio

vae victis"—woe to the vanquished.

Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not. Do not think that these considerations are unworldly and too far removed from real life. It is true that only a few people are capable of reaching such high moral standards.

A pesar del primitivismo físico y mental imperantes a la fuerza, en la vida del campo de concentración aún era posible desarrollar una profunda vida espiritual.

We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation

La supervivencia absorbía la personalidad hasta provocar un torbellino mental que ponía en duda la jerarquía de valores que había sostenido al prisionero antes del internamiento.

Nietzsche's words, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," could be the guiding motto for all psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic efforts regarding prisoners

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. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not. Do

Yet one of the main features of human existence is the capacity to rise above such conditions, to grow beyond them. Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.

Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation. It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.

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

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

suffering is not necessary to find meaning, only that "meaning is possible in spite of suffering.