Dr. Viktor E. Frankl is an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, known for being a Holocaust survivor and founder of logotherapy. With more than a dozen decorations and awards received during his lifetime, here is a look at some amazing Viktor E. Frankl quotes.
“By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.”
“A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the”why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any”how”.”
“An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.”
“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.”
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.”
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers.”
“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”
“Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.”
“Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge.”
“I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.”
“If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.”
“In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”
“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly.”
“It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.”
"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose."
—Viktor E. Frankl#quote pic.twitter.com/LhRI2D2c06
— Mohammad Khaleghi (@m9khaleghi) September 23, 2016
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
“Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”
“Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.”
“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.”
“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.”
“Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. 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.”
“Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.”
“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!”
“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.”
“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 one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”
“The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day.”
“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.”
“What is to give light must endure burning.”
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
Here is a segment from an interview conducted with Dr. Viktor Frankl where he discusses logotherapy and existencialism.
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