Quote

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. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life.

Viktor E. Frankl

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Find
Tasks
Adler
Life
Meaning
Alfred
Taught
Freud
Greatest
Quests
Pleasure
Quest
Power
Primarily
Persons
Task
Person
Believed

More quotes by Viktor E. Frankl

Image
As the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Man's last freedom is his freedom to choose how he will react in any given situation
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Austrian public-opinion pollsters recently reported that those held in highest esteem by most of the people interviewed are neither the great artists nor the great scientists, neither the great statesmen nor the great sport figures, but those who master a hard lot with their heads held high.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
The point is not what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
In his creative work the artist is dependent on sources and resources deriving from the spiritual unconscious.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
A human being is a deciding being.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
There are some authors who contend that meanings and values are nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations. But as for myself, I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my defense mechanisms, nor would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my reaction formations.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Now, it is my contention that the deneuroticization of humanity requires a rehumanization of psychotherapy.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a secondary rationalization of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run- in the long run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
[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
Image
Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.
Viktor E. Frankl