A psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, wrote in 1946, with the Nazi death camps fresh in his mind. In the first part of the book, Frankl describes his life in Auschwitz, providing a compelling account of unimaginable horrors. The second part introduces his psychotherapeutic method, logotherapy. Frankl describes how he and other inmates found reasons to live, despite their dire circumstances and relentless suffering. These experiences led to the idea behind logotherapy, which challenges Freud's conclusion that human beings have a fundamental drive to pursue pleasure. In Frankl’s philosophy, people instead are driven to find a sense of purpose and value.
Below are 30+ of Man's Search for Meaning's most potent quotes on life, suffering, and resilience as well as happiness and love.
The Best Man's Search for Meaning Quotes on Human Nature
"A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining."
"No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same."
"It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds."
"But today's society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness.”
"It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future."
The Best Man's Search for Meaning Quotes on Meaning and Purpose
"By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system."
"Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself—be it meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter."
"Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment.”
"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. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly.”
