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Man's Search for Meaning
by Viktor E. Frankl
(179 pgs)
Frankl is a survivor of the Nazi death camps
of WWII. During his struggle to survive, Frankl concluded
that for man to be happy, he must have a greater purpose and
meaning to his life. He took this principle and created a
new school of psychology.
some excerpts
We all had once been or had fancied ourselves
to be 'somebody.' Now we were treated like non-entities. (The
consciousness of one's inner value is anchored in higher more
spiritual things, and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how
many free men, let alone prisoners, possess it?) (83)
Dostoevski said once 'There is only one thing
that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings. (87)
He who has a why to live for can bear with
almost any how - Nietzsche (97)
When the impossibility of replacing a person
is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has
for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its
magnitude. (101)
"Freedom" - we repeated to ourselves,
and yet we could not grasp it. We had said this word so often
during all the years we dreamed about it, that it had lost
its meaning. Its reality did not penetrate into our consciousness;
we could not grasp the fact that freedom was ours. (109)
What man actually needs is not a tensionless
state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile
goal, a freely chosen task. (127)
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