Viktor E. Frankl Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Force, Situation, Mans Search For Meaning

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.5, Beacon Press

  371 Copy quote

• Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Happiness, Peace, Freedom

  422 Copy quote

• When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Change, Positive

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.113, Beacon Press

  554 Copy quote

• 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 E. Frankl

  Tasks, Quests, Taught

  "Optimism Or Overconfidence?" by Blythe McGarvie, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 5, 2010.

  361 Copy quote

• When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Pleasure, Persons

  345 Copy quote

• We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that 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.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Positive, Leadership

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.55, Beacon Press

  354 Copy quote

• Decisions, not conditions, determine what a man is.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Decision, Determine

  49 Copy quote

• Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Wise, Powerful, Purpose

  "This Man Faced Unimaginable Suffering, And Then Wrote The Definitive Book About Happiness" by Carolyn Gregoire, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 4, 2014.

  305 Copy quote

• Happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy - it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Goal, Psychology, Unintended Consequences

  14 Copy quote

• Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Leadership, Being Happy

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.55, Beacon Press

  230 Copy quote

• This is the core of the human spirit ... If we can find something to live for - if we can find some meaning to put at the center of our lives - even the worst kind of suffering becomes bearable.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Spirit, Kind

  61 Copy quote

• Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Dedication, Causes, Sides

  244 Copy quote

• The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Helping Others, Helping, Life Is

  33 Copy quote

• The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Way, One Thing

  "Gratitude for Viktor Frankl" by Peg Melnik, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 9, 2014.

  287 Copy quote

• 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

  Situation, Humans, Despite

  254 Copy quote

• We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. 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. When we are no longer able to change a situation-just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer-we are challenged to change ourselves.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Cancer, Fate, Thinking

  Viktor E. Frankl (2017). “Man's Search for Meaning: A Young Adult Edition”, p.111, Beacon Press

  275 Copy quote

• Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Business, Attitude, Freedom To Choose

  "Lifeway CEO’s Secret Ingredient? Attitude" by George Bradt, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 31, 2013.

  68 Copy quote

• What is to give light must endure burning.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Viktor E Frankl (2012). “The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy”, p.57, Souvenir Press

  140 Copy quote

• Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Self, Giving

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.129, Beacon Press

  17 Copy quote

• Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Mean, People, Today

  Viktor E. Frankl (2011). “The Unheard Cry for Meaning: Psychotherapy and Humanism”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

  21 Copy 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.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Mean, Responsibility

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.63, Beacon Press

  277 Copy quote

• You don't create your mission in life - you detect it.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Journey, Missions, Missions In Life

  60 Copy quote

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

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Past, Today

  228 Copy 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 of it.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Motivational, Running, Caring

  Robin Sharma (2003). “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny”, p.49, Jaico Publishing House

  146 Copy quote

• Being tolerant does not mean that I share another one's belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another one's right to believe, and obey, his own conscience.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Believe, Mean, Liberty

  Viktor E. Frankl (2014). “The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy”, p.46, Penguin

  171 Copy quote

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