Quotes on Mans Search For Meaning

It is this spiritual freedom - which cannot be taken away - _x000D_ that makes life meaningful and purposeful.

We had to learn...that it did not really matter what we expected from life but rather what life expected from us.

Once an individual's search for meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering

Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death.

The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected.

I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost.

We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: 1. by doing a deed; 2. by experiencing a value; and 3. by suffering.

Live as if you were living already for the second time.

When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task. . . . He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.

Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.

I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.

No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.

And I quoted from Nietzsche: That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.

An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

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

I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.

Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in its spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.

It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.

But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.

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.