Quotes About Meaning

A man who let himself decline because he could not see any future goal found himself occupied with retrospective thoughts.

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?

There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life.

Happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs

Logotherapy, or, as it has been called by some authors, "The Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy," focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as on man's search for such a meaning.

Regarding our "provisional existence" as unreal was in itself an important factor in causing the prisoners to lose their hold on life; everything in a way became pointless.

Insofar as a sacrifice is calculated, performed after careful reckoning of the prospects of its bringing about a desired end, it loses all ethical significance. Real sacrifice occurs only when we run the risk of having sacrificed in vein. Would anyone maintain that a person who plunges into the water to save someone has acted less ethically, or unethically, because both are drowned?

no importa lo que esperamos de la vida, sino que importa lo que la vida espera de nosotros.

We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation--just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer--we are challenged to change ourselves.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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