Viktor E. Frankl Quotes on Suffering (7 Quotes)

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.

In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity - even under the most difficult circumstances - to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal

Usually, to be sure, man considers only the stubble field of transitoriness and overlooks the full granaries of the past, wherein he had salvaged once and for all his deeds, his joys and also his sufferings. Nothing can be undone, and nothing can be done away with. I should say having been is the surest kind of being.

When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task.... He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.

Allport, Gordon W., in his preface to Man's Search for Meaning 'Why do you not commit suicide' Dr. Frankl asks his patients. ... in one life there is love for one's children to tie to in another life, a talent to be used in a third, perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving.... As a long-time prisoner in bestial concentration camps he Viktor Frankl found himself stripped to naked existence. His father, mother, brother, and his wife died in camps or were sent to gas ovens, so that, excepting for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps. How could he every possession lost, every value destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting extermination how could he find life worth preserving.

We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways (1) by doing a deed (2) by experiencing a value and (3) by suffering.