Viktor E. Frankl Quotes

The whole of science, and one is tempted to think the whole of the life of any thinking man, is trying to come to terms with the relationship between yourself and the natural world. Why are you here, and how do you fit in, and what's it all about.

I was looking for what the meaning of life was.

Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.

Every kid goes to school full of questions about meaning. You know, 'What's my place in the universe? What does it mean to be a human being? What are human beings?' Existing courses cannot help you answer those questions. They can't even help you ask them.

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

Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning.

We spend our lives talking about this mystery. Our life.

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.

How we come to be, and how we are what we are, is beyond any understanding. I have been obsessed by this, trying to understand the very nature of my existence.

The meaning of life is life.

Life is not accountable to us. We are accountable to life.

When I was younger, I was looking for this magic meaning of life.

Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence.

But really it was just, it was perfect. You know, I actually got that feeling like you know what, maybe this is why I'm alive, you know - maybe this is why I'm here on this on earth.

Whenever you're talking about meaning, basically... I think a lot of the human experience has to do with trying to understand what things mean, and there's not really any tools to do that unless you're thinking about it in a more spiritual or philosophical realm.

The why of why we are here is an intrigue for adolescents; the how is what must command the living.

As a child, I wondered often, 'Why are we? What is the meaning of life?' These questions made me realize that life is what has meaning - not just individual lives, but all of our lives.

At the heart of life lies a mystery that everybody has to wrestle with. What the heck are we doing here? How does this world work, and how do I fit?

The purpose of life is to find out 'Who am I?', 'Why am I here?' and 'Where am I going?'

A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.

It seems that it is impossible to live without discovering the purpose of your life. And the first thing which a person should do is to understand the meaning of life. But the majority of people who consider themselves to be educated are proud that they have reached such great height that they cease to care about the meaning of existence.

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.

We're on this planet for the briefest of moments in cosmic terms, and I want to spend that time thinking about what I consider the deepest questions.

I, at the age of 17 or 18 as a medical student, suddenly came up against a problem: 'What am I? What is the meaning of my existence as I experience it?'

I think of myself as being a relatively intelligent man who is open to a lot of different things and I think that questioning our purpose in life and the meaning of existence is something that we all go through at some point.