Viktor Frankl: Quotes

[David Baxter PhD]

"Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant."


"In between stimulus and response there is a space, in that space lies our power to choose our response in our response lies our growth and our freedom."


Read more about Viktor Frankl and his famous book, Man's Search For Meaning.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."

"Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality."

"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."

"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."

"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."

 

[David Baxter PhD]

"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."

 

[Daniel E.]

"Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'."

I guess that's him quoting Nietzsche

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Is that quote misattributed, Daniel?

 

[Daniel E.]

Yes. That's one of Nietzsche's best quotes:

http://books.google.com/books?q=who...+bear+with+almost+any+'how'&btnG=Search+Books

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Ahhh... that's why it's cited all over the net as from Frankl, because Nietzsche is quoted by Leslie D. Weatherhead in the forward to Man's Search for Meaning.

Thanks, Daniel. I'll edit the post above.

 

[Daniel E.]

BTW, it is also mentioned by Frankl at the bottom of this page:

http://books.google.com/books?id=H8k4JLZu6AsC&lpg=PA7&dq=who%20have%20a%20'why'%20to%20live%2C%20can%20bear%20with%20almost%20any%20'how'&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

[David Baxter PhD]

And in both places, the forward and that page, it's clearly attributed to Nietzsche.

Another excellent example of why going to the source is better than third party citations.

 

[Daniel E.]

"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him." ~ Viktor Frankl from Man's Search for Meaning