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Viktor E. Frankl Quotes

Doctor
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. 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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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I don't know my stand but when everything is blurred and nothing seems right, just submit.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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We cannot, after all, judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents...Sometimes the 'unfinisheds' are among the most beautiful symphonies.
From The Doctor and the Soul
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Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. 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. 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. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it
From Man's Search for Meaning
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A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him-mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.

Dostoevski said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings."

These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement.

It is this spiritual freedom- which cannot be taken away- that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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The salvation of man is through love and in love
From Man's Search for Meaning
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When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.
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To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to 'be happy.' But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to 'be happy.' Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.
From Man's Search for Meaning
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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. 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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I don't know my stand but when everything is blurred and nothing seems right, just submit.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We cannot, after all, judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents...Sometimes the 'unfinisheds' are among the most beautiful symphonies.
From The Doctor and the Soul
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. 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. 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. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him-mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.

Dostoevski said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings."

These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement.

It is this spiritual freedom- which cannot be taken away- that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The salvation of man is through love and in love
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to 'be happy.' But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to 'be happy.' Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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. 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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I don't know my stand but when everything is blurred and nothing seems right, just submit.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We cannot, after all, judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents...Sometimes the 'unfinisheds' are among the most beautiful symphonies.
From The Doctor and the Soul
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. 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. 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. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him-mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.

Dostoevski said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings."

These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement.

It is this spiritual freedom- which cannot be taken away- that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The salvation of man is through love and in love
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to 'be happy.' But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to 'be happy.' Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.
From Man's Search for Meaning
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote