Viktor Frankl

Quotes are word for word from the source.

• Normalizing stress

  “An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.”

  Our noteFrankl discusses how people react to extreme environments.

• Meaning in suffering

  “If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death.”

  Our noteFrankl explains that hardship is an inherent part of the human experience.

• Survival through meaning

  “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.”

  Our noteFrankl reflects on what helps individuals endure extreme hardship.

• Life asks you

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

  Our noteFrankl shifts the perspective on how we find purpose.

• Productive tension

  “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.”

  Our noteFrankl argues against the idea that total relaxation is the ideal state.

• Individual responsibility

  “For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.”

  Our noteFrankl calls for individual action in a lecture on tragic optimism.