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
I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way - an honorable way - in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Even in the depths of despair, one can find joy through love and contemplation of a beloved.
This quote by Viktor E. Frankl illustrates that even in the most dire circumstances, such as experiencing profound loss or desolation, an individual can find a fleeting sense of happiness or fulfillment in the love for another person. It emphasizes the power of love and the inner strength that comes from cherishing memories of a beloved, suggesting that love can transcend even the harshest realities of life.
Themes
BlissLoveSufferingContemplationFulfillment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about resilience, one might say, 'As Viktor Frankl noted, even the most desolate conditions can yield moments of bliss through the contemplation of love.'
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
Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are a bourbon biscuit.
Frida KahloRead
The Army might screw you and your girlfriend might dump you and the enemy might kill you, but the shared commitment to safeguard one another’s lives is unnegotiable and only deepens with time. The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly.
Sebastian JungerRead
Then Aragorn stooped and looked in her face, and it was indeed white as a lily, cold as frost, and hard as graven stone. But he bent and kissed her on the brow, and called her softly, saying: 'Éowyn Éomund's daughter, awake! For your enemy has passed away!' - Aragorn & Éowyn
J. R. R. TolkienRead
In the slaughterhouse of love, they kill only the best, none of the weak or deformed. Don't run away from this dying. Whoever's not killed for love is dead meat.
RumiRead
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningRead
I’ve been looking for a long, long time, _x000D_ for this thing called love, _x000D_ I’ve ridden comets across the sky, _x000D_ and I’ve looked below and above. _x000D_ Then one day I looked inside myself, _x000D_ and this is what I found, _x000D_ A golden sun residing there, _x000D_ beaming forth God’s light and sound.
RumiRead