Quote

Thus, human existence-at least as long as it has not been neurotically distorted-is always directed to something, or someone, other than itself, be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter lovingly.

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
Meaning
Lovingly
Something
Least
Distorted
Always
Existence
Existential
Fulfill
Another
Encounter
Someone
Directed
Human
Encounters
Humans
Thus
Long

More quotes by Viktor E. Frankl

Image
I try to do everything as soon as possible, and not at the last moment. This ensures that, when I am overburdened with work, I will not face the added pressure of knowing that something is still to be done.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
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.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
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
Image
Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Usually, to be sure, man considers only the stubble field of transitoriness and overlooks the full granaries of the past, wherein he had salvaged once and for all his deeds, his joys and also his sufferings. Nothing can be undone, and nothing can be done away with. I should say having been is the surest kind of being.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
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
Image
Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
The incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading so that he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
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.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Happiness must ensue. It cannot be pursued
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
I do the unpleasant tasks before I do the pleasant ones.
Viktor E. Frankl
Image
Sunday neurosis, that kind of depression which afflicts people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest.
Viktor E. Frankl