Viktor E. Frankl Quotes About Concentration

Quotes about: Concentration

• 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

• 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

• 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 E. Frankl

  Men, Two, Survivor

  Viktor E. Frankl (2011). “The Unheard Cry for Meaning: Psychotherapy and Humanism”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

• A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes - within the limits of endowment and environment- he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Self, Decision

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.102, Beacon Press

• Most men in a concentration camp believed that the real opportunities of life had passed. Yet, in reality, there was an opportunity and a challenge. One could make a victory of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Attitude, Real

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.78, Beacon Press

• [Speaking of his experience in a concentration camp:] As we said before, any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal...Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Goal, Inner Strength

• 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.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, May, Dignity

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.72, Beacon Press

• 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 E. Frankl

  Life, Book, Writing

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.8, Beacon Press

• One can choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Freedom, Attitude, Positive Thinking

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