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A human being is not one thing among others things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes-within the limits of endowment and environment-he has made out of himself.

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
Things
Environment
Men
Within
Endowment
Others
Determining
Human
Ultimately
Humans
Determine
Self
Limits
Thing
Among
Made
Becomes

More quotes by Viktor E. Frankl

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Man can only find meaning for his existence in something outside himself.
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Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose.
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Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.
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Everywhere man is confronted with fate , with a chance of achieving something through his own suffering.
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If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists wish to foster their patients' mental health, they should not be afraid to increase that load through a reorientation toward the meaning of one's life.
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Sleep [is like] a dove which has landed near one's hand and stays there as long as one does not pay any attention to it.
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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.
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Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
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The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.
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A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.
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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
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Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
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Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.
Viktor E. Frankl
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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.
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Most men in a concentration camp believed that the real opportunities of life had passed. Yet, in reality, there was an opportunity and a challenge. One could make a victory of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners.
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No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.
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We dislike talking about our experiences. No explanations are needed for those who have been inside, and the others will understand neither how we felt then nor how we feel now.
Viktor E. Frankl
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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.
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Sports allow men to build up situations of emergency. What he then demands of himself is unnecessary achievement - and unnecessary sacrifice. He artificially creates the tension that he has been spared by affluent society.
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When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E. Frankl