Man's Search for Meaning

"We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us."

"A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who loves him, or to any human being whose existence depends on him, will never be able to throw away his life."

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

"The existentialist psychiatrists are right when they say that modern man is sick because he feels his life is meaningless."

"Man's capacity to endure pain is remarkably great, provided it has meaning."

"If there is a 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."

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread."

"No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same."

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

"Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, nor a quest for power, as Adler believed, but a quest for meaning."

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—his attitude."

"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."

"Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue."

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

"The last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."

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

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

"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked."

"What matters is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment."

"The most important thing is to derive a lesson from every experience."

"Only those who allow their obscurity to lend a background to another's history can ever truly be content."

"Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn."

"The way a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life."

"Freedom is in choosing one's attitude; that is the last freedom that cannot be taken."

"When we stop asking about the meaning of life, life stops questioning us."

"Suffering is only unbearable when nobody cares. It becomes bearable the moment somebody listens."

"Life holds potential meaning under any circumstances, even the most miserable ones."

"The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is."