Viktor Frankl

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response."

"Those who have a 'why' to live can bear with almost any 'how.'"

"Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed; it is a quest for meaning."

"The meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour."

"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather a striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him."

"A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who loves him, or to any human being whose fate depends upon him, and who is aware that his life will end—that man will find life has meaning."

"Freedom, however, is not the last word. 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."

"The last of all human freedoms is the ability to choose one's attitude."

"Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning."

"The prisoners who lost faith in the future—in their deliverance—were indeed those who were lost."

"Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life."

"It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness."

"Happiness ensues, as a side effect, once you have found meaning and purpose in life."

"When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept suffering as his task."

"To love another human being is to see the face of God."

"The meaning we give to our suffering can actually transform the suffering."

"An active life serves the purpose of giving man a chance to find meaning in his work."

"The will to meaning is the most basic motivation in human beings."

"In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering the moment it finds meaning."

"No one can rob us of our last human freedom—to choose our attitude toward any circumstance."

"We cannot always control our external circumstances, but we can always control how we respond."

"The will to meaning can best be fulfilled by the way in which a man accepts his unavoidable suffering."

"Life itself never becomes meaningless. No matter how miserable one's life may be, while there is life, there is hope for meaning."

"Responsibility is the essence of human existence."

"If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering."

"The way your questions are phrased assumes that life is asking the questions and we are answering them."

"One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often."

"The prisoner who had lost faith in the future was doomed."

"A human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but one in search of a reason for being happy."