Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl -
Man's Search for Meaning (1946)
60 Sourced Quotes
View all Viktor Frankl Quotes
Source
Report...
The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
Self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of self-transcendence.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
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 Frankl
Source
Report...
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. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
There are some authors who contend that meanings and values are "nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations." But as for myself, I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my "defense mechanisms," nor would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my "reaction formations.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones. And I thought that if the point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing. I therefore felt responsible for writing down what I had gone through, for I thought it might be helpful to people who are prone to despair.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
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 Frankl
Source
Report...
Man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load that is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So, if therapists wish to foster their patients' mental health, they should not be afraid to increase that load through a reorientation toward the meaning of one's life.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
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 Frankl
Source
Report...
The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
Having been is also a kind of being, and perhaps the surest kind.
Viktor Frankl
Source
Report...
When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task.... He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.
Viktor Frankl
1
2
3
Quote of the day
No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.
Edvard Munch
Viktor Frankl
Creative Commons
Born:
March 26, 1905
Died:
September 2, 1997
(aged 92)
More about Viktor Frankl...
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes