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Happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy - it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.
Viktor E. Frankl
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Viktor E. Frankl
Age: 92 †
Born: 1905
Born: March 26
Died: 1997
Died: September 2
Existential Therapist
Neurologist
Professor
Psychiatrist
Psychologist
Psychotherapist
Surgeon
Writer
Vienna
Austria
Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl
Greater
Working
Unintended
Goal
Attained
Happiness
Wanting
Happy
Cannot
Psychology
Come
Consequence
Must
Oneself
More quotes by Viktor E. Frankl
The struggle for existence is a struggle 'for' something it is purposeful and only in so being is it meaningful and able to bring meaning into life.
Viktor E. Frankl
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.
Viktor E. Frankl
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.
Viktor E. Frankl
I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.
Viktor E. Frankl
In psychiatry there is a certain condition known as delusion of reprieve. The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute. No one could yet grasp the fact that everything would be taken away. all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence.
Viktor E. Frankl
God is the partner of your most intimate soliloquies
Viktor E. Frankl
It is the pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.
Viktor E. Frankl
When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.
Viktor E. Frankl
[Speaking of his experience in a concentration camp:] As we said before, any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal...Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost.
Viktor E. Frankl
It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future.
Viktor E. Frankl
Ultimately, we are not subject to the conditions that confront us rather, these conditions are subject to our decision ... we must decide whether we will face up or give in, whether or not we will let ourselves be determined by the conditions.
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
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
A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
Viktor E. Frankl
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.
Viktor E. Frankl
Happiness cannot be pursued it must ensue.
Viktor E. Frankl
The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.
Viktor E. Frankl
Man ultimately decides for himself! And in the end, education must be education towards the ability to decide
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
A human being is a deciding being.
Viktor E. Frankl
