Quotes About Meaning

If Adler's theory of human action relates to power, concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl's brand of existential psychology, "logotherapy," posits that the human species is uniquely made to seek meaning.

While we are pushed by drives, we are pulled by meaning, and

11 Jerome Bruner Acts of Meaning: Four Lectures on Mind and Culture (1990) A founder of cognitive psychology argues for a model of the mind based on the creation of meaning rather than computational processing.

people choose between two ways of coming to conclusions or judgments: by thinking, using an impersonal process of logic; and by feeling, deciding what something means to them.

Frankl's brand of therapy is sometimes considered, after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology, to be the third school of Viennese psychotherapy, and The Will to Meaning clearly points out the differences between his ideas and those of his compatriots. It

A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.

The symbol is not an artificially constructed sign: it flowers in the soul spontaneously to announce something that cannot be expressed otherwise. It is the unique expression of the thing symbolized as of a reality that thus becomes transparent to the soul, but which itself transcends all expression.

Gradually it occurred to me that we spend a great deal of life asleep and that dreams are little narratives, little stories. I thought, 'Who's choreographing this stuff?'

I like mountains and oceans and stuff, which is where I've always felt some sort of power of meaning, but that's not necessarily spiritual.

My life has really been about writing, though some think it's all about once having been in a ball dress and having an odd life and marrying all the time. But it's the writing that's always been the point.

There is an odd assumption that compassion and care are finite or that critics can be everything to everyone - commenting on everything simply because they can. That's not what cultural criticism is.

You can only offend me if you mean something to me.

I was raised evangelical, so if you want to get offended, let's get offended. I have a master's degree in being offended.

We have more to offer than just looking good.

If the songs I'm writing can offer anything to somebody, I'd like to give myself the opportunity to deliver that.

I know my music probably isn't going to matter to the public after I die, but that doesn't mean I don't have something to offer.

Each human being exists because there's something they have to offer for the evolution of the universe that only they can fulfill.

I love 'To Kill A Mockingbird' - it seems to offer up new layers every time you read it. I also love Kate Atkinson's 'Behind The Scenes At The Museum' - that's the book that started me writing.

A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.

I think firmly that art is no use to anyone unless it offers some kind of consolation or hope.

I do get a lot of offers for endorsing a brand, but for me, the credibility of the brand matters the most.

You don't leave behind box office scores or how many dollars changed hands.

Oftentimes reoccurring dreams are ways a loved one is trying to come through and deliver a message.

Ohio's future is important to me.