Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Summary
Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl is an autobiography about the author's experiences in Nazi concentration camps as well as a commentary about man's will to live.
Favorite Quotes
- “Sometimes the frustrated will to meaning is vicariously compensated for by a will to power… or pleasure” (paraphrased)
- “… 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.”
- “The way in which a a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity— even under the most difficult circumstances— to add a deeper meaning to his life.”
- “The prisoner who had lost faith in his future was doomed… he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay.”
- Quoting Nietsche: “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”
- “[Man’s] meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning.”
- “What matters is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”
- “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!”
Story of Death in Tehran:
A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encounted Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Tehran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse. On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, "Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?" "I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Tehran," said Death.
3 Ways to Experience Meaning:
- Achievements
- Experiences of Love / Truth / Beauty
- Suffering
References
Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
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