Skip to content

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

— Viktor Frankl Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

Another quote →

More quotes by Viktor Frankl

You may of course ask whether we really need to refer to "saints."

Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

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.

Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.
And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

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.

Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

The way in which 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.

Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

All Viktor Frankl quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Viktor Frankl (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.