25 Quotes From "Man's Search For Meaning" That Will Help You Find Meaning In Your Life

“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.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“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.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: ‘He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.’”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“Pleasure is, and must remain, a side-effect or by-product, and is destroyed and spoiled to the degree to which it is made a goal in itself.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“The more one forgets 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, amazon.com

“Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“A positive attitude enables a person to endure suffering and disappointment as well as enhance enjoyment and satisfaction. A negative attitude intensifies pain and deepens disappointments; it undermines and diminishes pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction; it may even lead to depression or physical…”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear any more — except his God.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“According to logotherapy, this striving for to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“But today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable…”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“To be sure, man’s search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com

“We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, amazon.com