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It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.

Viktor E. Frankl

The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Boredom Existential Vacuum
When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Change Inspirational Positive
A man who could not see the end of his”provisional existence” was not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Able Goal Men
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.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Country Lectures Ministry Ultimately
Man can only find meaning for his existence in something outside himself.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Existence Find Men
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.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Beautiful Death Symphony
Ultimately, we are not subject to the conditions that confront us; rather, these conditions are subject to our decision … we must decide whether we will face up or give in, whether or not we will let ourselves be determined by the conditions.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Condition Confront Decision Faces Giving
As the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Mean People Struggle
Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Goal Inspirational Life
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

Answers Life Men
The last of human freedoms – the ability to chose one’s attitude especially an attitude of gratitude in a given set of circumstances especially in difficult circumstances.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Attitude Gratitude Lasts
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.
VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Attitude Learning Life
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

Love Men Secret
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
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

Actualization Causes Giving Self
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

Encounters Existentialism Suffering

It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.

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It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.

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