Mans Search For Meaning Quotes

Man actually needs the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how."

Everywhere man is confronted with fate , with a chance of achieving something through his own suffering.

Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality

If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.

Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation.

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

You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.

Somewhere I heard a victorious "Yes" in answer to my question of the existence of ultimate purpose.

Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.

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

What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.

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

Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.

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.

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

Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.

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

Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.

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

To be sure, man's search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health. There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life. There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how

What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms.

There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.

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.

It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future...And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task.

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

There are two races of men in this world but only these two: the race of the decent man and the race of the indecent man.

It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features.

The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.

There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life.

Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

Man's inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.

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

No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being until he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.

No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.

There is also purpose in life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces.

If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists wish to foster their patients' mental health, they should not be afraid to increase that load through a reorientation toward the meaning of one's life.

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.

It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.

Don't aim at success — the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run — in the long run, I say — success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.

Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.

I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run- in the long run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.

For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

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

An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.