Viktor Frankl was an Austrian-born psychiatrist, neurologist, and Holocaust survivor. He is best known for finding logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that emphasizes the importance of finding purpose and meaning in life as a key driver of mental health and well-being. Here are the best Viktor Frankl quotes on life, suffering, hope, and freedom that will help you understand the importance of finding purpose in even the most challenging moments.
Born on the 26th of March 1905 in Vienna, Frankl is most famous for surviving the Holocaust. He endured imprisonment in various concentration camps, including Auschwitz, during World War II.
Frankl faced a lot of loss and suffering in the concentration camps, which became the base for his exploration of the human capacity for resilience and finding purpose even in the most challenging times.
He returned to his home city of Vienna after the liberation of camps by Allied forces in 1945, where he wrote the best-selling book Man’s Search For Meaning.
The book chronicles his experiences in the concentration camps, the brutal conditions, and the suffering and hopelessness of his fellow prisoners.
It is considered as one of the best inspirational books till date and has sold millions of copies in dozens of languages.
Apart from his profound contributions to existential psychology, Frankl has made a huge impact as a motivational speaker and humanitarian.
Viktor Frankl’s legacy continues to inspire millions to confront their own challenges with a sense of purpose and resilience.
Here are the best Viktor Frankl quotes that offer insights into the ability of humans to endure suffering and find meaning in the face of adversity.
Top 10 Viktor Frankl Quotes
- “The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl Quotes - “What is to give light must endure burning.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Decisions, not conditions, determine what a man is.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Frankl Quotes - “Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Quotes Of Viktor Frankl - “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Frankl Quotations - “Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Frankl Quote - “Don’t aim at success… For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Inspirational Viktor Frankl Quotes - “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” — 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
Viktor Frankl Quotes Between Stimulus And Response
Best Viktor Frankl Quotes
- “The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality.” — 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
- “For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “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
- “Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “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.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “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
- “Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.” — 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
Viktor E. Frankl Quotes On Success
- “Success is total self-acceptance.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Religion is the search for ultimate meaning.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “You don’t create your mission in life – you detect it.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “The point is not what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.” — 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
- “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
- “There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “View life as a series of movie frames, the ending and meaning may not be apparent until the very end of the movie, and yet, each of the hundreds of individual frames has meaning within the context of the whole movie.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “If you call ‘religious’ a man who believes in what I call a Supermeaning, a meaning so comprehensive that you can no longer grasp it, get hold of it in rational intellectual terminology, then one should feel free to call me religious, really.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Famous Quotes By Viktor Frankl
- “Faith is trust in ultimate meaning.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Even a genius cannot completely resist his Zeitgeist, the spirit of his time.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “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.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl Quotes From Man’s Search For Meaning
- “To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Everywhere man is confronted with fate, with the chance of achieving something through his own suffering.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “In some ways, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.” — 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
- “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 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
- “Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore, the ‘size’ of human suffering is absolutely relative.” — Viktor E. Frankl
Inspirational Viktor Frankl Quotes
- “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “If there is a 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
- “For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.” — Viktor E. Frankl
- “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
Conclusion
What are your favorite Viktor E. Frankl quotes and sayings listed above? If there is a quote that we’ve missed then let us know in the comments section what your thoughts are.
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