Man’s Search for Meaning
Author: Viktor Frankl Category: Personal Development Published: January 1, 1959 Language: English File Size: 6.6 MB Tags: autobiography | Biography | Classics | History | love | Memoir | Nonfiction | Personal Development | self help | Spirituality |Theme:
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, explores the theme of love, hope, responsibility, inner freedom, and the beauty to be found in both nature and art as means that help one endure and overcome harrowing experiences.
Summary:
Frankl claims that there are three ways to find meaning in life:
- Through work
- Through love
- Through suffering
Famous Quotes:
“If . . . one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude.”
“A passive life of enjoyment affords . . . [man] the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature.”
“Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in . . . terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.”
“There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.”
“An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work.”
“He knows the ‘why’ for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any ‘how.‘”
“Optimism is not anything to be commanded or ordered.”
“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”
“When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task.”
“I only insist that meaning is available in spite of—nay, even through—suffering.”
“I know that without the suffering, the growth that I have achieved would have been impossible.”
“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.”
“A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life.”
“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”
“One cannot . . . force oneself to be optimistic indiscriminately, against all odds, against all hope.”
“Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.”
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