“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.”

— 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

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

— Epictetus

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

— Aristotle

“We live in a country where the people own the Government and not in a country where the Government owns the people.”

— Winston Churchill

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

— C.S. Lewis

“There is nothing to life that has value, except the degree of power—assuming that life itself is the will to power.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.”

About Viktor Frankl

More from Viktor Frankl

Related quotes