There are some authors who contend that meanings and values are "nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations." But as for myself, I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my "defense mechanisms," nor would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my "reaction formations.

Viktor E. Frankl

Categorized in : Sake Defense Reactions

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.

Viktor E. Frankl

freedom happiness peace

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.

Viktor E. Frankl

mans-search-for-meaning situation force

Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life.

Viktor E. Frankl

quests taught tasks

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that 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.

Viktor E. Frankl

leadership positive life

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

Viktor E. Frankl

change positive inspirational

When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.

Viktor E. Frankl

pleasure persons

Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.

Viktor E. Frankl

powerful purpose wise

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 personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run — in the long run, I say — success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.

Viktor E. Frankl

caring running motivational

Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

Viktor E. Frankl

dedication causes sides

Decisions, not conditions, determine what a man is.

Viktor E. Frankl

determine decision men

The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me.

Viktor E. Frankl

one-thing way

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 ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.

Viktor E. Frankl

change song life

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Viktor E. Frankl

leadership being-happy inspirational

We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation-just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer-we are challenged to change ourselves.

Viktor E. Frankl

cancer fate thinking

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. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

Viktor E. Frankl

responsibility life mean

To be sure, man's search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health. There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life. There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how

Viktor E. Frankl

may men world

Being tolerant does not mean that I share another one's belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another one's right to believe, and obey, his own conscience.

Viktor E. Frankl

liberty mean believe

It isn't the past which holds us back, it's the future; and how we undermine it, today.

Viktor E. Frankl

today past

Our greatest human freedom is that, despite whatever our physical situation is in life, WE ARE ALWAYS FREE TO CHOOSE OUR THOUGHTS!

Viktor E. Frankl

despite situation humans

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.

Viktor E. Frankl

second-chance time life