Viktor E. Frankl Quotes About Suffering

Quotes about: Suffering

• When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique 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 E. Frankl

  Lying, Unique, Opportunity

  "Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition".

• 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 E. Frankl

  Courage, Grief, Men

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.64, Beacon Press

• It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Encounters, Existentialism

  Viktor E. Frankl (1985). “Man's Search For Meaning”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

• 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

• To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the "size" of human suffering is absolutely relative.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Soul, Mind

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.40, Beacon Press

• In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Fear, Sacrifice, Suffering

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

• If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Meaning Of Life, Mans Search For Meaning

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.73, Beacon Press

• What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? "No, thank you," he will think. "Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these things are things that cannot inspire envy."

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Past, Reality, Thinking

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.94, Beacon Press

• Pain from problems and disappointments, etc., is inevitable in life, but suffering is a choice determined by whether you choose to compare your experience and pain to something better and therefore feel unlucky and bitter or to something worse and therefore feel lucky and grateful!

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Gratitude, Pain, Disappointment

• If there is 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. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Fate, Suffering And Death, Meaning Of Life

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.56, Beacon Press

• 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 E. Frankl

  Lying, Acceptance, Unique

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.64, Beacon Press

• To suffer unecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Heroic, Masochistic

• 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 E. Frankl

  Lying, Opportunity, Men

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.73, Beacon Press

• 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.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Attitude, Suffering And Death, Lasts

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.56, Beacon Press

• We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: 1. by doing a deed; 2. by experiencing a value; and 3. by suffering.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Suffering, Different

  Viktor E. Frankl (1964). “Man S Search For Meaning”, p.101, Ratna Sagar

• Everywhere man is confronted with fate , with a chance of achieving something through his own suffering.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Fate, Men

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.57, Beacon Press

• Despair is suffering without meaning.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Despair, Existential

• I would say that our patients never really despair because of any suffering in itself! Instead, their despair stems in each instance from a doubt as to whether suffering is meaningful. Man is ready and willing to shoulder any suffering as soon and as long as he can see a meaning in it.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Meaningful, Men, Long

• 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

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Fate, Fighting, Animal

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.73, Beacon Press

• Usually, to be sure, man considers only the stubble field of transitoriness and overlooks the full granaries of the past, wherein he had salvaged once and for all his deeds, his joys and also his sufferings. Nothing can be undone, and nothing can be done away with. I should say having been is the surest kind of being.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Past, Men, Joy

  Viktor E. Frankl (2017). “Man's Search for Meaning: Young Adult Edition: Young Adult Edition”, p.119, Beacon Press

• The incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading" so that "he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Opportunity, Suffering, Unhappy

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.114, Beacon Press

• Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Past, Reality, Envy

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.94, Beacon Press

• Once an individual's search for meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Successful, Giving, Suffering

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.136, Beacon Press

• Suffering presents us with a challenge: to find our goals and purpose in our lives that make even the worst situation worth living through.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Worst Situation, Goal, Challenges

• I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way - an honorable way - in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Understanding, Suffering

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.35, Beacon Press

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