A psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor E. Frankl wrote Man's Search for Meaning 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 60+ 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."
"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."
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response."
"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."
"On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors..."
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.”
“Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary."
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked."
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us."
"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose."
"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."
"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..."
The best Man's Search for Meaning quotes on suffering and resilience
"An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior."
"But 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."
"If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering."
"In some ways, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice."
"Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete."
"In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice."
"Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'."
"To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas... it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber."
"But 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."
"...sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud..."
The best Man's Search for Meaning quotes on freedom and responsibility
"Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth."
"Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness."
"It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions."
"I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast."
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
"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."
"Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth... 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."
"So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!"
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked."
The best Man's Search for Meaning quotes on success and happiness
"Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it."
"Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it."
"Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue."
“The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest.”
“What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it.”
"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..."
"Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it."
"...in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!— success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it."
"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..."
"The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar... grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf... and files it neatly and carefully away..."
The best Man's Search for Meaning quotes on kindness and love
"Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. "
"Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn."
"For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth–that love is the highest goal to which man can aspire."
"Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality."
“The salvation of man is through love and in love."
"Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality."
"The salvation of man is through love and in love."
"Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn."
"A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him... will never be able to throw away his life."
"By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized."
