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One should not search for an abstract meaning of life ... Life can be made meaningful in a threefold way: first, through what we give to life ... second, by what we take from the world ... third, through the stand we take toward a fate we no longer can change.

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
First
Toward
Take
Meaning
Threefold
Giving
Second
Abstract
Made
Longer
Search
Way
Stand
Meaningful
Life
Change
Third
World
Give
Thirds
Firsts
Fate

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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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I never would have made it if I could not have laughed. It lifted me momentarily out of this horrible situation, just enough to make it livable.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It is always important to have something yet to do in life.
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Pain is only bearable if we know it will end, not if we deny it exists.
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There are two races of men in this world but only these two: the race of the decent man and the race of the indecent man.
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Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.
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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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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.
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I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost.
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Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose.
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Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
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Either belief in God is unconditional or it is no belief at all.
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When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
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Just as a small fire is extinguished by the storm whereas a large fire is enhanced by it - likewise a weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them.
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It is this spiritual freedom - which cannot be taken away - that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
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It is true that we can see the therapist as a technician only if we have first viewed the patient as some sort of machine.
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It is the pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.
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