The Best Viktor Frankl quotes

The choices humans make should be active rather than passive. — Viktor E. Frankl

The more one forgets one’s own self, the more human the person becomes. — Viktor E. Frankl

A humAn being is A deciding being. — Viktor Frankl

Individuality can only be valuable when it is not individuality for its own sake but individuality for the human community. — Viktor E. Frankl

Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him–mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. — Viktor E. Frankl

He main retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. Dostoevsky said once, ‘There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings’. — Viktor E. Frankl

Human potential at its best is to transform a tragedy into a personal triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. — Viktor E. Frankl

The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing — Viktor E. Frankl

As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, — Viktor E. Frankl

A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self–determining. What he becomes–within the limits of endowment and environment–he has made out of himself. — Viktor E. Frankl

To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions. — Viktor E. Frankl

Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn. — Viktor E. Frankl

For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. — Viktor E. Frankl

Each of us has his own inner concentration camp… We must deal with, with forgiveness and patience–as full human beings, as we are and what we will become. — Viktor E. Frankl

Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. — Viktor E. Frankl

What matters is not the features of our character or the drives and instincts per se, but rather the stand we take toward them. And the capacity to take such a stand is what makes us human beings. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary. — Viktor E. Frankl

For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. — Viktor E. Frankl

Despair is suffering without meaning. — Viktor E. Frankl

Dostoevski said once, ‘There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings. — Viktor E. Frankl

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering — Viktor E. Frankl

Everywhere man is confronted with fate, with the chance of achieving something through his own suffering. — Viktor E. Frankl

If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. — Viktor E. Frankl

Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, — Viktor E. Frankl

Suffering is intended to guard man from apathy, from psychic rigor mortis. — Viktor E. Frankl

A positive attitude enables a person to endure suffering and disappointment as well as enhance enjoyment and satisfaction. — Viktor E. Frankl

Is it not conceivable that there is still another dimension, a world beyond man’s world; a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human suffering would find an answer? — 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

Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete. — Viktor E. Frankl

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

If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete. — Viktor E. Frankl

Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it. The — Viktor E. Frankl

Suffering in and of itself is meaningless, we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it. — Viktor E. Frankl

Human life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. — Viktor E. Frankl

We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: 1. by doing a deed; 2. by experiencing a value; and 3. by suffering. — Viktor E. Frankl

I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. — Viktor E. Frankl

I believe that my handicap will only enhance my ability to help others. I know that without the suffering, the growth that I have achieved would have been impossible. — Viktor E. Frankl

The incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading’ so that ‘he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy. — Viktor E. Frankl

Once an individual’s search for a meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering. — Viktor E. Frankl

This is the core of the human spirit … If we can find something to live for–if we can find some meaning to put at the center of our lives–even the worst kind of suffering becomes bearable. — Viktor E. Frankl

Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

Ultimate freedom is a man’s right to choose his attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

The last freedom is choosing your attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

U]ntil his last breath no one can wrest from a man his freedom to take one or another attitude toward his destiny. — Viktor E. Frankl

No one can take from us the ability to choose our attitudes toward the circumstances in which we find ourselves. This is the last of human freedoms. — Viktor E. Frankl

One can choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. — Viktor E. Frankl

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

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

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

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

It is always important to have something yet to do in life. — Viktor E. Frankl

Being jobless was equated with being useless, and being useless was equated with having a meaningless life. — Viktor E. Frankl

When man can’t find meaning in his life, he distracts himself with pleasure. — Viktor E. Frankl

You don’t create your mission in life–you detect it. — Viktor E. Frankl

The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. — Viktor E. Frankl

It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. — Viktor E. Frankl

We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life. — Viktor E. Frankl

Our perspective toward life is our final and ultimate freedom.–Viktor Frankl quoted by Desmond Tutu — Dalai Lama Xiv

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

Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man’s search for meaning is the chief motivation of his life. — Viktor E. Frankl

Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life. — Viktor E. Frankl

The meaning of your life is to help others find the meaning of theirs. — Viktor E. Frankl

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human. — Viktor E. Frankl

Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives. — Viktor E. Frankl

Life requires of man spiritual elasticity, so that he may temper his efforts to the chances that are offered. — 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

Nothing is likely to help a person overcome or endure troubles than the consciousness of having a task in life. — Viktor E. Frankl

The point is not what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us. — Viktor E. Frankl

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty. I worked–and behold, duty was joy. — 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

An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, — Viktor E. Frankl

It is this spiritual freedom–which cannot be taken away–that makes life meaningful and purposeful. — Viktor E. Frankl

No one can take away my freedom to choose how I will react. — Viktor E. Frankl

We are never left with nothing as long as we retain the freedom to choose how we will respond. — Viktor E. Frankl

Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose. — Viktor E. Frankl

Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. — Viktor E. Frankl

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

For in every case man retains the freedom and the possibility of deciding for or against the influence of his surroundings. — Viktor E. Frankl

I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in the freedom of space. — 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

Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. — Viktor E. Frankl

An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. — Viktor E. Frankl

I never would have made it if I could not have laughed. It lifted me momentarily out of this horrible situation, just enough to make it livable. — 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

Often it is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself. — Viktor E. Frankl

People forgot that often it is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself — Viktor E. Frankl

Man’s last freedom is his freedom to choose how he will react in any given situation — 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

No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. — Viktor E. Frankl

It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make–up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds. — 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

Suffering presents us with a challenge: to find our goals and purpose in our lives that make even the worst situation worth living through. — Viktor E. Frankl

If one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man can only find meaning for his existence in something outside himself. — Viktor E. Frankl

The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected. — Viktor E. Frankl

Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.. — Viktor E. Frankl

At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence. — Viktor E. Frankl

He who knows the ‘Why’ for his existence is able to bear almost any ‘How’. — Viktor E. Frankl

Somewhere I heard a victorious ‘Yes’ in answer to my question of the existence of ultimate purpose. — Viktor E. Frankl

When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. — Viktor E. Frankl

One of the main features of human existence is the capacity to rise above such conditions, to grow beyond them. — Viktor E. Frankl

The transitoriness of our existence in now way makes it meaningless. But it does constitute our responsibleness; for everything hinges upon our realizing the essentially transitory possibilities. — Viktor E. Frankl