A life of short duration...could be so rich in joy and love that it could contain more meaning than a life lasting eighty years.

— Viktor E. Frankl

A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.

— Viktor E. Frankl

A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease. It may well be that interpreting the first in terms of the latter motivates a doctor to bury his patient's existential despair under a heap of tranquilizing drugs. It is his task, rather, to pilot the patient through his existential crises of growth and development.

— Viktor E. Frankl

A man's suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore, the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative.

— Viktor E. Frankl

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how.'

— Viktor E. Frankl

A man who could not see the end of his"provisional existence" was not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life.

— Viktor E. Frankl

An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

— Viktor E. Frankl

An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature. But there is also purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces. A creative life and a life of enjoyment are banned to him. But not only creativeness and enjoyment are meaningful. 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. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.

— Viktor E. Frankl

As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the question of the meaning of life may actually be reversed. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he 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. Thus, logo therapy sees in responsiveness the very essence of human existence.

— Viktor E. Frankl

As long as a self is driven by an ID to a Thou, it is not a matter of love, either. In love the self is not driven by the ID, but rather the self chooses the Thou.

— Viktor E. Frankl