“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering.”

— Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

About Viktor Frankl

1905 – 1997

Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who founded logotherapy. His memoir 'Man's Search for Meaning' is one of the most widely read books in the world.

See all 22 Viktor Frankl quotes →

More from Viktor Frankl

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude.”

— Viktor Frankl

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”

— Viktor Frankl

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

— Viktor Frankl

“Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death.”

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“However, I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The life expectancy for Americans has practically doubled over the course of this century. Now it is our responsibility to ensure that from cradle to grave, these years are ones…”

— Christopher Reeve