Happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy – it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.
VIKTOR E. FRANKLHuman kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.
More Viktor E. Frankl Quotes
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I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.
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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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It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future.
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We cannot, after all, judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents…Sometimes the ‘unfinisheds’ are among the most beautiful symphonies.
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Man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.
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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.
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Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.
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I do the unpleasant tasks before I do the pleasant ones.
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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.
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Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
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Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.
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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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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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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.
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It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL