Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the duality of human nature, acknowledging both humanity's capacity for evil and its potential for courage and faith.
Viktor E. Frankl’s quote examines the complex nature of humanity, presenting a stark juxtaposition between the horrific acts humans are capable of, such as the creation of the gas chambers during the Holocaust, and the profound strength they can display in the face of such horrors, as exemplified by those who faced their demise with prayers on their lips. This duality invites reflection on the depths of human experience, emphasizing that within darkness can exist remarkable resilience and hope.
Themes
HumanityDualityCourageFaithSuffering
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about resilience in the face of adversity.
More from Viktor E. Frankl
All quotes →The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear anymore—except his God.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
Viktor E. FranklRead
It is the pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Logotherapy sees the human patient in all his humanness. I step up to the core of the patient's being. And that is a being in search of meaning, a being that is transcending himself, a being capable of acting in love for others.
Viktor E. FranklRead
The more one forgives himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Similar quotes
So long as we use a certain language, all questions that we can ask will have to be formulated in it and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe which is implied in the vocabulary and structure of the language.
Michael PolanyiRead
When a legislature decides to steal some of our rights and plans to use police force to accomplish it, what's the real difference between them and the thief? Darn little! They hide behind the excuse that they're legislating democratically. The fact they do it by a majority vote has no moral significance whatsoever. Numerical might does not constitute right, no more than a lynch mob can justify its act because a majority participated.
H. L. RichardsonRead
The rich, by unfair combinations, contribute frequently to prolong a season of distress among the poor.
Thomas MalthusRead
Irony ruined everything Even the best exploitation movies were never meant to be `so bad they were good`. They were not made for the intelligentsia. They were made to be violent for real, or to be sexy for real. But now everybody has irony. Even horror films now are ironic. Everybody's in on the joke now. Everybody's hip. Nobody takes anything at face value anymore.
John WatersRead
We are effectively destroying ourselves by violence masquerading as love.
R. D. LaingRead
Time is the River on which the leaves of our thoughts are carried into oblivion.
Doris LessingRead