Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. He developed a theory that is through a search for meaning and purpose in life that individuals can endure hardship and suffering. Insightful Viktor Frankl quotes will inspire you to change your perspective to find meaning in anything you do.
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Most Famous Viktor E. Frankl Quotes
I do the unpleasant tasks before I do the pleasant ones. – Viktor E. Frankl
Pain is only bearable if we know it will end, not if we deny it exists. – Viktor E. Frankl
I try to do everything as soon as possible, and not at the last moment. This ensures that, when I am overburdened with work, I will not face the added pressure of knowing that something is still to be done. – Viktor E. Frankl
By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true. – Viktor E. Frankl
A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows thewhyfor his existence and will be able to bear almost anyhow. – Viktor E. Frankl
An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
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
For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. – Viktor E. Frankl
I do not forget any good deed done to me and I do not carry a grudge for a bad one. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions. – Viktor E. Frankl
When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer… his unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden. – Viktor E. Frankl
Man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate. – Viktor E. Frankl
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. – Viktor E. Frankl
A man’s concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease. – Viktor E. Frankl
At such a moment, it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all. – Viktor E. Frankl
The more one forgives 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. – Viktor E. Frankl
Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. – Viktor E. Frankl
The last freedom is choosing your attitude. – Viktor E. Frankl
As for the concept of collective guilt, I personally think that it is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons. – Viktor E. Frankl
In times of crisis, people reach for meaning. Meaning is strength. Our survival may depend on our seeking and finding it. – Viktor E. Frankl
When a man cannot find meaning, he numbs himself with pleasure. – Viktor E. Frankl
Man can only find meaning for his existence in something outside himself. – Viktor E. Frankl
Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. – Viktor E. Frankl
Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. – Viktor E. Frankl
View life as a series of movie frames, the ending and meaning may not be apparent until the very end of the movie, and yet, each of the hundreds of individual frames has meaning within the context of the whole movie. – Viktor E. Frankl
God is the partner of your most intimate soliloquies – Viktor E. Frankl
Despair is suffering without meaning. – Viktor E. Frankl
Ultimate freedom is a man’s right to choose his attitude. – Viktor E. Frankl
The point is not what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us. – Viktor E. Frankl
Each of us carries a unique spark of the divine, and each of us is also an inseparable part of the web of life. – Viktor E. Frankl
To suffer unecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic. – Viktor E. Frankl
The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing – Viktor E. Frankl
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
The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. – Viktor E. Frankl
Self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of self-transcendence. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
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
Even when it is not fully attained, we become better by striving for a higher goal. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
Just as a small fire is extinguished by the storm whereas a large fire is enhanced by it – likewise a weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them. – Viktor E. Frankl
Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation. – Viktor E. Frankl
Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. – Viktor E. Frankl
Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality – Viktor E. Frankl
Life asks of every individual a contribution, and it is up to that individual to discover what it should be – Viktor E. Frankl
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
You don’t create your mission in life – you detect it. – Viktor E. Frankl
If we take a man as he is, we make him worse, but if we take man as he should be, we make him capable of becoming what he can be. – Viktor E. Frankl
It isn’t the past which holds us back, it’s the future; and how we undermine it, today. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
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
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
Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude. – Viktor E. Frankl
What is to give light must endure burning. – Viktor E. Frankl
Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose. – Viktor E. Frankl
Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure. – Viktor E. Frankl
Religion is the search for ultimate meaning. – Viktor E. Frankl
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.’ – Viktor E. Frankl
Fear may come true that which one is afraid of. – Viktor E. Frankl
Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. – Viktor E. Frankl
Faith is trust in ultimate meaning. – Viktor E. Frankl
Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for. – Viktor E. Frankl
No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. – Viktor E. Frankl
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. – Viktor E. Frankl
Even a genius cannot completely resist his Zeitgeist, the spirit of his time. – Viktor E. Frankl
A human being is a deciding being. – Viktor E. Frankl
I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast. – Viktor E. Frankl
Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself – be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. – Viktor E. Frankl
Since Auschwitz, we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima, we know what is at stake. – Viktor E. Frankl
Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. – Viktor E. Frankl
The last of human freedoms – the ability to chose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances. – Viktor E. Frankl
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. – Viktor E. Frankl
Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips. – Viktor E. Frankl
Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives. – Viktor E. Frankl
When we are no longer able to change a situation – just think of an incurable disease such as an inoperable cancer – we are challenged to change ourselves. – Viktor E. Frankl
Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human. – Viktor E. Frankl
Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
If there is a 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
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
Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated; thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it. – Viktor E. Frankl
In a position of utter desolation, when 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
A painter tries to convey to us a picture of the world as he sees it; an ophthalmologist tries to enable us to see the world as it really is. The logotherapist’s role consists of widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the whole spectrum of potential meaning becomes conscious and visible to him. – Viktor E. Frankl
When I was taken to the concentration camp of Auschwitz, a manuscript of mine ready for publication was confiscated. Certainly, my deep desire to write this manuscript anew helped me to survive the rigors of the camps I was in. – Viktor E. Frankl
Logotherapy sees the human patient in all his humanness. I step up to the core of the patient’s being. And that is a being in search of meaning, a being that is transcending himself, a being capable of acting in love for others. – Viktor E. Frankl
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life, I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. – Viktor E. Frankl
If you call ‘religious’ a man who believes in what I call a Supermeaning, a meaning so comprehensive that you can no longer grasp it, get hold of it in rational intellectual terminology, then one should feel free to call me religious, really. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
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
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
The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance. Regardless of what happens to you you can always choose to be grateful by imagining how it could have been worse! – Viktor E. Frankl
[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
Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in its spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance. – Viktor E. Frankl
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
One should not search for an abstract meaning of life … Life can be made meaningful in a threefold way: first, through what we give to life … second, by what we take from the world … third, through the stand we take toward a fate we no longer can change … – Viktor E. Frankl
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
Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man-his courage and hope, or lack of them-and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. The ultimate cause of my friend’s death was that the expected liberation did not come, and he was severely disappointed. – Viktor E. Frankl
