beingcelestial 's Key Ideas from Man's Search for Meaning
by Viktor Emil Frankl

"There's only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings."

... It can be said that they are worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom - which cannot be taken away - that makes the life more meaningful and purposeful.

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

What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life.

We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we have to teach the despairing men, that 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 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 task which it constantly sets for each individual.

These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment.

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

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

Not only our experiences, but all we have done, whatever great thoughts we may had, and all we have suffered, all this is not lost, though it is past; we have brought it into being.

Having been is also kind of being, and perhaps the surest kind.