Search For Meaning Quotes - Page 4

• No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Essence, Beloved Person

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.87, Beacon Press

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• 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 E. Frankl

  Men, Race, Two

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.70, Beacon Press

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• 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

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• For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Men, What Matters

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.109, Beacon Press

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• ...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.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Thinking, Meditation, Answers

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

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• 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

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• It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Rise Above, Well Known, Life Altering

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.51, Beacon Press

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• 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

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• 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

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• But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look then was more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Real, Wife, Mind

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

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• 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

  Mean, Responsibility, Growth

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.82, Beacon Press

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• An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Abnormal, Behavior, Reactions

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.29, Beacon Press

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• There is also purpose in life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Attitude, Men

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

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• It said to me, 'I am here — I am here — I am life, eternal life.'

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Here I Am, Said, Eternal Life

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.58, Beacon Press

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• It is this spiritual freedom - which cannot be taken away -
  that makes life meaningful and purposeful.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Meaningful, Spiritual, Taken

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

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• We had to learn...that it did not really matter what we expected from life but rather what life expected from us.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Live In The Moment, Matter, Moments

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• 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

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• The salvation of man is through love and in love.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Love, Life, Men

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

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• Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Love Is, Men

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

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• ...being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself—be it meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.... What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Simple, Self, Giving

  Viktor E. Frankl (2017). “Man's Search for Meaning: A Young Adult Edition”, p.109, Beacon Press

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• 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

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• 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

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• I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, World, May

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

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• To be sure, man's search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health. There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life. There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, World, May

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.91, Beacon Press

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• No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Honesty, Humility, Men

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.55, Beacon Press

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