Viktor E. Frankl Quotes
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.
We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: 1. by doing a deed; 2. by experiencing a value; and 3. by suffering.
The more one forgives 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.
Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.
Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.
We had to learn...that it did not really matter what we expected from life but rather what life expected from us.
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.
Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.
The last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them.
In times of crisis, people reach for meaning. Meaning is strength. Our survival may depend on our seeking and finding it.
Suffering presents us with a challenge: to find our goals and purpose in our lives that make even the worst situation worth living through.
Man ultimately decides for himself! And in the end, education must be education towards the ability to decide
As for the concept of collective guilt, I personally think that it is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons.
Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.
I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.
The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude especially an attitude of gratitude in a given set of circumstances especially in difficult circumstances.
Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.
In his creative work the artist is dependent on sources and resources deriving from the spiritual unconscious.
A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
I never would have made it if I could not have laughed. It lifted me momentarily out of this horrible situation, just enough to make it livable.
Happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy - it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.
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.