Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who developed a unique approach to psychology called logotherapy. His quotes about life, hope, love, purpose, and happiness are full of wisdom and insight.
Frankl believed that the meaning of life is something that individuals must discover for themselves. He thought we all have a responsibility to make the best of our lives, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in.
This Viktor Frankl quotes show us that even in the darkest moments of our lives, there is always hope. There is always something worth fighting for. And there is always a reason to keep going.
Viktor Frankl Quotes About Life
- “God is the partner of your most intimate soliloquies” ~ 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
- “If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “What is to give light must endure burning.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “Even when it is not fully attained, we become better by striving for a higher goal.” ~ 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
- “And I quoted from Nietzsche: That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “Man can only find meaning for his existence in something outside himself.” ~ 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
- “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
- “When a man cannot find meaning, he numbs himself with pleasure.” ~ 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.” ~ 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
- “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
- “Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.” ~ 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
Viktor Frankl Quotes On Purpose
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor. He is most famous for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which detailed his experience in Nazi concentration camps and how he used that experience to develop his theories about meaning and hope.
His quotes are often very motivational and inspire people to find meaning in their lives. Here are some of Viktor Frankl’s most famous quotes:
- “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 the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how.” ~ 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
- “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
- “An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.” ~ 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
- “To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.” ~ 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
- “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.” ~ 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
- “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that 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
- “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “Decisions, not conditions, determine what a man is.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
- “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
- “Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Frankl Quotes Happiness
Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist who developed the logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis. He was also a Holocaust survivor. Some of his famous quotes are about life, hope, love, purpose, happiness, and freedom.
- “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.” ~ 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
- “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
- “Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” ~ 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
- “The more one forgets one’s own self, the more human the person becomes.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Frankl Quotes Freedom
- “The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing” ~ 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
- “Life asks of every individual a contribution, and it is up to that individual to discover what it should be” ~ 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 Quotes
- “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
- “The point is not what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl believed that human life has meaning in any circumstance, even the most horrible ones, such as imprisonment and concentration camps. He also thought ultimate freedom could be experienced despite external pressures or deprivation.
His experiences while imprisoned during World War II helped him to this realization. Frankl wrote a book outlining his approach, titled “Man’s Search for Meaning,” which remains an essential resource for modern psychology professionals.
In his theories, he emphasizes four different ways of finding meaning: by creating meaningful work; through relationships with other people; by helping others selflessly; and experiencing unique moments of emotional experience (which he called “peak experiences”).
According to Frankl, each person has two choices: accept the unacceptable reality without complaint or try to change it if possible so that one can grow from it instead of becoming bitter about the situation faced.
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