5 Quotes & Sayings By Victor E Frankl

Victor E. Frankl was born in 1908 in Vienna, Austria. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna before being drafted into the German army during World War II. He spent the next three years in concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald Read more

After Germany's surrender in 1945, he returned to his medical practice, but he continued to write books about his experiences. He received a doctorate degree in psychology in 1950 from the University of Vienna and practiced psychiatry until his retirement in 1970.

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The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times. Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it. Victor E. Frankl
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Don't aim at success-the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to 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 dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Victor E. Frankl
Frankl approvingly quotes the words of Nietzsche:
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Frankl approvingly quotes the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How. Victor E. Frankl
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Everything you have in life can be taken from you except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. This is what determines the quality of the life we’ve lived – not whether we’ve been rich or poor, famous or unknown, healthy or suffering. What determines our quality of life is how we relate to these realities, what kind of meaning we assign them, what kind of attitude we cling to about them, what state of mind we allow them to trigger. Victor E. Frankl