Procreation is not the only meaning of life, for then life in itself would become meaningless, and something which in itself is meaningless cannot be rendered meaningful merely by its perpetuation.
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Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis, the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy". His best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning (published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism, and originally published in 1946 as Trotzdem Ja Zum Leben Sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager, meaning Nevertheless, Say "Yes" to Life: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate, which led him to discover the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most brutal ones, and thus, a reason to continue living. Frankl became one of the key figures in existential therapy and a prominent source of inspiration for humanistic psychologists. 2Life before 1945 Frankl was born in Vienna into a Jewish family of civil servants (Beamtenfamilie). His interest in psychology surfaced early. For the final exam (Matura) in Gymnasium, he wrote a paper on the psychology of philosophical thinking. After graduation from Gymnasium in 1923, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna and later specialized in neurology and psychiatry, concentrating on the topics of depression and suicide. His early development was influenced by his contacts with Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, although he would later diverge from their teachings. 3Physician, therapist During part of 1924 he became the president of the Sozialistische Mittelschüler Österreich, a Social Democratic youth movement for high school students throughout Austri
There 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.
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.
What is to give light must endure burning.
Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
Being tolerant does not mean that I share another’s belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another’s right to believe, and obey, his own conscience.
Pleasure, rather than being the end of man's striving, is actually the effect of meaning fulfillment. And power, rather than being an end in itself, is actually the means to an end; if man is to live out his will to meaning, a certain amount of power–day financial power–by and large will be an…
What then is the meaning of money, or for that matter, the meaning of possessing money? Most of those people who possess it are really possessed by it, obsessing by the urge to multiply it, and thus they nullify its meaning. For the possession of money should mean that one is in a fortunate…
As the boomerang comes back to the hunter who has thrown it only if it has missed its target, man, too, returns to himself and is intent upon self-actualization only if he has missed his mission.
It can have meaning if it changes you for the better.
There is a subject nowadays which is taboo in the way that sexuality was once taboo; which is to talk about life as if it had any meaning.
If I don't do it—who will do it? And if I don't do it right now—when should I do it? But if I do it for my own sake only—what am I?
Man, by having become a human being, in no way ceases to remain an animal, anymore than an airplane ceases to be capable of moving around the ground of the airport.