…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. FRANKLLife is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.
More Viktor E. Frankl Quotes
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Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.
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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.
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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
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Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.
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Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.
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Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them.
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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.
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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.
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It said to me, ‘I am here — I am here — I am life, eternal life.’
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When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.
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It is true that we can see the therapist as a technician only if we have first viewed the patient as some sort of machine.
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The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected.
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It is the pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.
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A man’s concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
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Thus, human existence-at least as long as it has not been neurotically distorted-is always directed to something, or someone, other than itself, be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter lovingly.
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Having been is also a kind of being, and perhaps the surest kind.
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Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved.
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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.
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Nothing is likely to help a person overcome or endure troubles than the consciousness of having a task in life.
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I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
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It isn’t the past which holds us back, it’s the future; and how we undermine it, today.
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Sunday neurosis, that kind of depression which afflicts people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest.
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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.
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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.
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Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
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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.
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