Viktor Frankl Quotes

Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. — Viktor E. Frankl

There are only two races, the decent and the indecent. — Viktor E. Frankl

Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

He who knows the 'Why' for his existence is able to bear almost any 'How'. — Viktor E. Frankl

Most important, he realized that, no matter what happened, he retained the freedom to choose how to respond to his suffering. — Viktor E. Frankl

Despair is suffering without meaning. — Viktor E. Frankl

The choices humans make should be active rather than passive. — Viktor E. Frankl

The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. — Viktor E. Frankl

Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now. — Viktor E. Frankl

Either belief in God is unconditional or it is no belief at all. — Viktor E. Frankl

The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs. — Viktor E. Frankl

It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment. — Viktor E. Frankl

Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning — Viktor E. Frankl

Every therapy must in some way, no matter how restricted, also be logotherapy. — Viktor E. Frankl

The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing — Viktor E. Frankl

The last freedom is choosing your attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future. — Viktor E. Frankl

There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. — Viktor E. Frankl

Now, it is my contention that the deneuroticization of humanity requires a rehumanization of psychotherapy. — Viktor E. Frankl

Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land. — Viktor E. Frankl

The fear is mother of the event. — Viktor E. Frankl

God is the partner of your most intimate soliloquies — Viktor E. Frankl

Man's last freedom is his freedom to choose how he will react in any given situation — Viktor E. Frankl

When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure. — Viktor E. Frankl

The neurotic who learns to laugh at himself may be on the way to self-management, perhaps to cure.11 — Viktor E. Frankl

know that without the suffering, the growth that I have achieved would have been impossible." Is — Viktor E. Frankl

Pain is only bearable if we know it will end, not if we deny it exists. — Viktor E. Frankl

It is our responsibility to look for meaning in life, even in the darkest times, and whatever the circumstances we always have a vestige of free will. — Viktor E. Frankl

Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. — Viktor E. Frankl

The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. — Viktor E. Frankl

Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose. — Viktor E. Frankl

At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence. — Viktor E. Frankl

When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer [ ... ] his unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden. — Viktor E. Frankl

Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death — Viktor E. Frankl

No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions. Our — Viktor E. Frankl

When a man cannot find meaning, he numbs himself with pleasure. — Viktor E. Frankl

Our greatest human freedom is that, despite whatever our physical situation is in life, WE ARE ALWAYS FREE TO CHOOSE OUR THOUGHTS! — Viktor E. Frankl

Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already. — Viktor E. Frankl

There are two races of men in this world, but only these two - the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. — Viktor E. Frankl

Even a genius cannot completely resist his Zeitgeist, the spirit of his time. — Viktor E. Frankl

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. — Viktor E. Frankl

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

For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. — Viktor E. Frankl

Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life. — Viktor E. Frankl

Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. — Viktor E. Frankl

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. — Viktor E. Frankl

When we are not any lengthier capable to alter a predicament, we're challenged to alter ourselves — Viktor E. Frankl

It is always important to have something yet to do in life. — Viktor E. Frankl

No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. — Viktor E. Frankl

In his creative work the artist is dependent on sources and resources deriving from the spiritual unconscious. — Viktor E. Frankl

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. — Viktor E. Frankl

Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. — Viktor E. Frankl

Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives. — Viktor E. Frankl

Since Auschwitz, we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima, we know what is at stake. — Viktor E. Frankl

For tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer. Only — Viktor E. Frankl

Strangely enough, a blow which does not even find its mark can, under certain circumstance, hurt more than one that finds its mark — Viktor E. Frankl

And as long as a self is driven by an id to a Thou, it is not a matter of love, either. In love the self is not driven by the id, but rather — Viktor E. Frankl

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

The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. — Viktor E. Frankl

So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now! — Viktor E. Frankl

In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice. Of — Viktor E. Frankl

Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary. — Viktor E. Frankl

The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances. — Viktor E. Frankl

[M]an does not live by welfare alone. — Viktor E. Frankl

I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. — Viktor E. Frankl

If we take a man as he is, we make him worse, but if we take man as he should be we make him capable of becoming what he can be. — Viktor E. Frankl

Fear brings about that which one is afraid of, and hyper-intention makes impossible what one wishes — Viktor E. Frankl

Is that theory true which would have us believe that man is no more than a product of many conditional and environmental factors - — Viktor E. Frankl

No one can take away my freedom to choose how I will react. — Viktor E. Frankl

As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, — Viktor E. Frankl

Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn. — Viktor E. Frankl

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time. — Viktor E. Frankl

I think Republicans need to have their staffers reading less Ayn Rand and having them read Dr. Viktor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning more. — Rob Zerban

Sleep [is like] a dove which has landed near one's hand and stays there as long as one does not pay any attention to it. — Viktor E. Frankl

Somewhere I heard a victorious "Yes" in answer to my question of the existence of ultimate purpose. — Viktor E. Frankl

Each of us carries a unique spark of the divine, and each of us is also an inseparable part of the web of life. — Viktor E. Frankl

Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. — Viktor E. Frankl

What is to give light must endure burning. - Viktor E. Frankl — Glennon Doyle Melton

Life asks of every individual a contribution, and it is up to that individual to discover what it should be — Viktor E. Frankl

They died less from lack of food or medicine than from lack of hope, lack of something to live for. — Viktor E. Frankl

Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. — Viktor E. Frankl

It was in the nature of this sacrifice that it should appear to be pointless in the normal world, the world of material success. — Viktor E. Frankl

I mentioned earlier how everything that was not connected with the immediate task of keeping oneself and one's closest friends alive lost its value. — Viktor E. Frankl

The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected. — Viktor E. Frankl

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

In times of crisis, people reach for meaning. Meaning is strength. Our survival may depend on our seeking and finding it. — Viktor E. Frankl

Ultimate freedom is a man's right to choose his attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is. — Viktor E. Frankl

Even if you don't expect anything from life, doesn't life expect something from you? — Viktor E. Frankl

Happiness must ensue. It cannot be pursued — Viktor E. Frankl

No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. — Viktor E. Frankl

I do the unpleasant tasks before I do the pleasant ones. — Viktor E. Frankl

If one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

A sound philosophy of life, I think, may be the most valuable asset for a psychiatrist to have when he is treating a patient. — Viktor E. Frankl

Religion is the search for ultimate meaning. — Viktor E. Frankl

A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease. — Viktor E. Frankl