568 Quotes by Viktor E. Frankl

. . . nothing could touch the strength of my love, and the thoughts of my beloved. Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I still would have given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of that image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying. "Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death."

Once an individual's search for meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering

Only to the extent that someone is living out this self transcendence of human existence, is he truly human or does he become his true self. He becomes so, not by concerning himself with his self's actualization, but by forgetting himself and giving himself, overlooking himself and focusing outward.

Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy.

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

As such, I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable,

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.

I would say that our patients never really despair because of any suffering in itself! Instead, their despair stems in each instance from a doubt as to whether suffering is meaningful. Man is ready and willing to shoulder any suffering as soon and as long as he can see a meaning in it.

The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitudes.