Procreation is not the only meaning of life, for then life in itself would become meaningless, and something which in itself is meaningless cannot be rendered meaningful merely by its perpetuation.
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Man's Search for Meaning
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his p
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When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.
I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I…
There 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.
When we are no longer able to change a situation–just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer–we are challenged to change ourselves.
That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars w…
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.
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.
According to logotherapy, this striving for to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man.
Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation.
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…
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.
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.
I said that someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours; a friend wife, somebody alive or dead, or a God—and would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find us suffering proudly—not miserably—knowing how to die.
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."
No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.’
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.
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.