Viktor E. Frankl Quotes - Page 3

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• It isn't the past which holds us back, it's the future; and how we undermine it, today.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Past, Today

  218 Copy quote

• One should not search for an abstract meaning of life ... Life can be made meaningful in a threefold way: first, through what we give to life ... second, by what we take from the world ... third, through the stand we take toward a fate we no longer can change.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Meaningful, Fate, Giving

  20 Copy quote

• In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Fear, Sacrifice, Suffering

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.113, Beacon Press

  97 Copy quote

• Despair is suffering without meaning.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Despair, Existential

  14 Copy quote

• Pain is only bearable if we know it will end, not if we deny it exists.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Pain, Remembrance, Deny

  13 Copy quote

• For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Men, What Matters

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.109, Beacon Press

  18 Copy quote

• I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Ministry, Berlin, Lectures

  Viktor E Frankl (2012). “The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy”, p.12, Souvenir Press

  19 Copy quote

• Nothing is likely to help a person overcome or endure troubles than the consciousness of having a task in life.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Viktor E Frankl (2012). “The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy”, p.48, Souvenir Press

  18 Copy quote

• ...being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself—be it meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. 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.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Simple, Self, Giving

  Viktor E. Frankl (2017). “Man's Search for Meaning: A Young Adult Edition”, p.109, Beacon Press

  112 Copy quote

• When a man cannot find meaning, he numbs himself with pleasure.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Pleasure, Find Me

  11 Copy quote

• One evening, when we were already resting on the floor of our hut, dead tired, soup bowls in hand, a fellow prisoner rushed in and asked us to run out to the assembly grounds and see the wonderful sunset. Standing outside we saw sinister clouds glowing in the west and the whole sky alive with clouds of ever-changing shapes and colors, from steel blue to blood red. The desolate grey mud huts provided a sharp contrast, while the puddles on the muddy ground reflected the glowing sky. Then, after minutes of moving silence, one prisoner said to another, "How beautiful the world could be.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Beautiful, Running, Moving

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.37, Beacon Press

  83 Copy quote

• Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Change, Wisdom

  "How Doing What You Love Serves Humanity" by Jason Mannino, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 23, 2009.

  22 Copy quote

• Man can only find meaning for his existence in something outside himself.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Existence, Find Me

  27 Copy quote

• Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Fighting, Self, Soul

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.39, Beacon Press

  31 Copy quote

• Self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of self-transcendence.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Self, Sides, Side Effects

  Viktor E. Frankl (1966). “Man's Search for Meaning”

  33 Copy quote

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

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Happiness, Dedication, Causes

  Viktor E. Frankl (1985). “Man's Search For Meaning”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

  76 Copy quote

• The last freedom is choosing your attitude.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Attitude, Lasts

  9 Copy quote

• But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Courage, Grief, Men

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.64, Beacon Press

  28 Copy quote

• The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Gratitude, Attitude, Grateful

  Choosing Optimism When Pessimism Would Be Easier" by Jason Mannino, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 9, 2009.

  39 Copy quote

• 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.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Two, Survivor

  Viktor E. Frankl (2011). “The Unheard Cry for Meaning: Psychotherapy and Humanism”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

  44 Copy quote

• Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Beloved, Mans Search For Meaning, Search For Meaning

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.36, Beacon Press

  6 Copy quote

• Because of social pressure, individualism is rejected by most people in favor of conformity. Thus the individual relies mainly upon the actions of others and neglects the meaning of his own personal life. Hence he sees his own life as meaningless and falls into the “existential vacuum” feeling inner void. Progressive automation causes increasing alcoholism, juvenile delinquency, and suicide.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suicide, Fall, People

  4 Copy quote

• It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Encounters, Existentialism

  Viktor E. Frankl (1985). “Man's Search For Meaning”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

  43 Copy quote

• Either belief in God is unconditional or it is no belief at all.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Belief, Unconditional, Belief In God

  7 Copy quote

• If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Meaning Of Life, Mans Search For Meaning

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.73, Beacon Press

  53 Copy quote

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