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
At such a moment, it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that mental suffering from perceived injustice can be more painful than physical pain.
Viktor E. Frankl's quote highlights the profound impact of psychological suffering, particularly stemming from a sense of injustice. Both adults and children experience mental anguish that can overshadow physical pain, suggesting that the emotional and cognitive elements of our experiences often carry greater weight in how we perceive suffering. This reflection on human pain underlines the importance of fairness and reason in our interactions and the deep psychological scars that unfair treatment can leave behind.
Themes
Mental AgonyInjusticePainSufferingReasonableness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the impact of bullying, one might use this quote to illustrate the emotional toll it takes.
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.
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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.
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It is the pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.
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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
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