We cannot, after all, judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents...Sometimes the 'unfinisheds' are among the most beautiful symphonies.
death tso-life
Man is able to snatch everything except one thing, the last of human freedoms: the choice of an attitude under any given set of circumstances to determine his own path.
attitude choices-and-consequences freedom meaning-of-life
To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to 'be happy.' But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to 'be happy.' Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.
happiness inspirational meaning tso-life
That which does not kill me, will only make me stronger!
hope strength
Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
inspirational psychology
I do not forget any good deed done to me
frankl good grudge meaning tso-life viktor
The truth - that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.
truth tso-love
In his creative work the artist is dependent on sources and resources deriving from the spiritual unconscious.
artist conscience creative creativity spiritual unconscious
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They 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.
attitude
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 drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him.
concentration-camp dream prison
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.
healing meaning
The truth-that love is the highest goal to which man can aspire.
inspirational-attitude
Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.
frankl man man-s-search-for-meaning realistic viktor
An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.
abnormal frankl meaning viktor
Not every conflict is necessarily neurotic; some amount of conflict is normal and healthy. In a similar sense suffering is not always a pathological phenomenon; rather than being a symptom of neurosis, suffering may well be a human achievement, especially if the suffering grows out of existential frustration... Existential frustration is neither pathological or pathogenic.
existential inspirational meaning mental-health
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.
humor meaning tso-funny
As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the question of the meaning of life may actually be reversed. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he 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. Thus, logotherapy sees in responsibleness the very essence of human existence.
human-existence inspirational logotherapy meaning responsibility tso-life
Was Du erlebst, kann keine Macht der Welt Dir rauben. (What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.) Not only our experiences, but all we have done, whatever great thoughts we may have had and all we have suffered, all this is not lost, though it is past; we have brought it into being. Having been is a kind of being, and perhaps the surest kind.
inspirational meaning
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
motivation
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.
Ironically enough, in the same way that fear brings to pass what one is afraid of, likewise a forced intention makes impossible what one forcibly wishes... 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.
psychology
A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms.
As long as a self is driven by an id to a Thou, it is not a matter of love, either. In love the self is not driven by the id, but rather the self chooses the Thou.
ego id self tso-love
Por lo general, sólo se mantenían vivos aquellos prisioneros que tras varios años de dar tumbos de campo en campo, habían perdido todos sus escrúpulos en la lucha por la existencia; los que estaban dispuestos a recurrir a cualquier medio, fuera honrado o de otro tipo, incluidos la fuerza bruta, el robo la traición o lo que fuera con tal de salvarse. Los que hemos vuelto de allí, gracias a multitud de casualidades fortuitas o milagros -como cada cual prefiera llamarlos- lo sabemos bien: los mejores de entre nosotros no regresaron.
existence survival