The 71 best phrases by Viktor Frankl to reflect on

Viktor Frankl’s phrases are great life lessons, those go-to lyrics that fill us with hope when our world becomes gray and there seems to be no way out. And not only because of everything they imply, but because they are the result of their personal history and experience.

Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist and philosopher, creator of logotherapy, who lived the horrors of the holocaust firsthand being a prisoner in several Nazi concentration camps. In fact, from that experience, he wrote Man’s Search for Meaninghis best-known book and the story of how he faced adversity.

Through his works, Viktor Frankl teaches us the importance of a life with meaning and meaning. and the need to transform ourselves when we cannot change the circumstances around us. Without a doubt, Frankl is an example of resilience and improvement who left a great legacy that we can remember with some of his best phrases.

The courage of tears

Crying is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of courage. Tears carry with them the value of expressing our emotions and how we feel, of bringing out what drowns us and binds us inside when words are not enough to express what overflows the soul.

They help us vent, communicate and tell others that we suffer., that we do not feel well and show ourselves as we are. Tears are a call for empathy and support from others.

The search for the meaning of life

For Viktor Frankl, The search for the meaning of life constitutes its essence. Thus, when this is not found, power and pleasure are the main axes of behavioral motivation, those that govern the life of the person and those that in turn lead them to meaninglessness and the experience of existential emptiness. This happens because the person turns the search for happiness into an end in itself and immerses themselves in spirals of pleasure that end up not filling them and being the patch that momentarily anesthetizes their suffering.

So, Finding purpose, discovering the meaning of our life, is truly transformative. because everything changes even one’s ability to face adversity. Well, by having a “why” it is possible to face all the “hows” because any suffering becomes a challenge.

After experience as a prisoner in concentration camps and the loss of his family, Viktor Frankl was clear about his purpose: to help others find meaning and meaning in their lives. and to cope with emotional pain. And so he did, because his entire approach revolves around the will to meaning.

The importance of not judging

This is one of Viktor Frankl’s phrases that we should keep in mind at all times. We tend to judge others almost every day. As soon as someone does not act as we think or as seems right to us, we tend to criticize it without even trying to understand it.

We forget the personal story behind each of us, the circumstances they are going through or everything they have experienced. And not only that, but in most cases we position ourselves as an example of action or holders of the truth.

The question is: are we so sure how we would act if we were in the other’s position? Furthermore, who are we to say what is right or wrong? Are we better than others?

The power of attitude

These phrases by Viktor Frankl are some of the best known. Many authors and professionals use them in their speeches, books and talks to raise awareness of the importance of our attitude in the face of adversity and any circumstance that happens to us.

Often, we insist that events and people will change, that life will fit us and everything will happen as we planned, but that is not possible. We have no control over almost anything, even though we act as if we do. Yes indeed, We can choose our attitude towards life, they cannot take that away from us. Thus, we have the ability to change ourselves, to choose where we want to go and how to react, in short, to decide.

Love as truth in the phrases of Viktor Frankl

Of all Viktor Frankl’s phrases, these are the ones that convey the greatest depth and wisdom. Love as truth, goal and support of everything. In fact, self-transcendence is only possible for Frankl to the extent that one gives oneself to a thing or a neighbor and forgets oneself.

Other quotes from Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl left great reflections for humanity. If these are not enough for you, do not fear, becauseHere you have many others to continue nourishing yourself with their wisdom:

Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Decisions, not conditions, determine who we are. It is not the past that holds us back, it is the future; and how we weaken it, today. Our greatest human freedom is that, despite our physical situation in life, we are always free to choose our thoughts! Live as if you were living a second time, and as if you had done wrong the first time. time.Being tolerant does not mean that you share someone else’s belief. But it means that I recognize the right of another to believe and obey his own conscience. Humor is another of the weapons of the soul in the fight for self-preservation. There are two races of men in this world, but only these two: the race of the decent man and the race of the indecent man. Pain is only bearable if we know it will end, not if we deny that it exists. Suffering unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic. When a man discovers that it is his destiny to suffer… his only chance lies in the way it bears its burden. Existential emptiness manifests itself primarily in a state of boredom. I do not forget any good deed done to me, and I do not hold a grudge for a bad one. Forces beyond your control can take everything away from you. What you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You don’t create your mission in life, you detect it. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. We can discover this meaning in the life of three different ways: 1. doing a deed; 2. experiencing a value; and 3. Suffering. If there is any meaning in life, then there must be meaning in suffering. Trying to develop a sense of humor and see things with humor is a kind of trick learned while mastering the art of living. And then, after taking a few steps in silence, one prisoner said to another: “How beautiful the world could be!” Death can only cause fear to those who do not know how to fill the time they are given to live. Man is the son of his past but not its slave, and he is the father of his future. Being responsible means being selective, choosing. In other words, self-realization cannot be achieved when it is considered. Only to the same extent that man commits to the fulfillment of the meaning of his life, to that same extent he realizes himself. If it is not in your hands to change a situation that causes you pain, you can always choose the attitude with which you face that suffering. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of mental independence, even in the terrible circumstances of psychic and physical tension. Literally speaking, the only thing we possessed was our naked existence. Love is a phenomenon as primary as sex can be. Normally sex is a way of expressing love. Love is the highest and most essential goal to which the human being can aspire… the fullness of human life is in love and is realized through it. Fear makes that what one fears will happen. Ultimately, living means taking responsibility for finding the correct answer to the problems it poses and fulfilling the tasks that life continually assigns to each individual. You can turn experience into victories, life in an internal triumph. Freedom is nothing more than the negative aspect of any phenomenon, whose positive aspect is responsibility. Who could blame them for trying to get high under such circumstances? (…) They knew very well that any day they would be replaced by another consignment and they would have to leave their obligatory role as executors to become victims. The person who knows the “why” of their existence will be able to endure almost any “how.” What To become a person – within the limits of their faculties and their environment – they have to do it for themselves. Human goodness is found in all groups, even those who generally deserve to be condemned. And at that moment the whole truth became clear to me and I did what was the climax of the first phase of my psychological reaction: I erased from my consciousness all previous life. The most painful aspect of the blows is the insult they include. Those who have not gone through a similar experience can hardly conceive the soul-destroying mental conflict or the conflicts of the force of will that a hungry man experiences. Despite the physical and mental primitivism prevailing by force, in the life of the concentration camp it was still possible to develop a profound spiritual life. I did not know if my wife was alive, nor did I have a way to find out (during During the entire time of confinement there was no postal contact with the outside), but by then I had stopped caring, I didn’t need to know, nothing could alter the strength of my love, my thoughts or the image of my beloved. No. ..