Man’s Search For Meaning: Words of Wisdom From Viktor E. Frankl

Viktor E. Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis, the “Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy”.

His best-selling book Man’s Search for Meaning chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate, which led him to discover the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most brutal ones, and thus, a reason to continue living.

Frankl became one of the key figures in existential therapy and a prominent source of inspiration for humanistic psychologists.

Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Here is a collection of inspirational quotes from Viktor E. Frankl.

Viktor E. Frankl Quotes

1. “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor E. Frankl

2. “The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” – Viktor E. Frankl

3. “The point is not what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us.” – Viktor E. Frankl

4. “Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.” – Viktor E. Frankl

5. “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

6. “Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.” – Viktor E. Frankl

7. “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, 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

8. “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 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

9. “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

10. “It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.” – Viktor E. Frankl

11. “Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.” – Viktor E. Frankl

12. “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

13. “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

14. “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” – Viktor E. Frankl

15. “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

16. “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

17. “Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.” – Viktor E. Frankl

18. “Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” – Viktor E. Frankl

19. “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

20. “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

21. “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

22. “Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” – Viktor E. Frankl

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