Viktor E. Frankl Quotes

Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.

On some level, we as human beings can be who we want to be.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

A man really determines himself by what he does.

I am glad I am born in this era, but, at the same time, my success will totally depend on the choices I make.

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.

My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true. Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.

A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes - within the limits of endowment and environment- he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

It is not the courage to be that we must develop as much as the courage to become. We are responsible for our destiny. The meaning of life is not located in some hidden crevice in the womb of nature but is created by free persons, who are aware that they are responsible for their own futures and have the courage to take this project into their own hands.

Autonomy... is freedom to develop one's self - to increase one's knowledge, improve one's skills, and achieve responsibility for one's conduct. And it is freedom to lead one's own life, to choose among alternative courses of action so long as no injury to others results.

Choice is the key, because human beings are the only creatures who can choose to evolve, who can shape their destiny. Furthermore, we have been given the gift of "self-awareness," which allows us to step back into our true selves to observe and use our brains to create the world we wish to live in.

We are product of neither nature nor nurture; we are a product of choice, because there is always a space between stimulus and response. As we wisely exercise our power to choose based on principles, the space will become larger.

The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

Everybody eventually discovers that they are an individual with the power to affect their own lives and make it better or not.

I believe you make your day. You make your life. So much of it is all perception, and this is the form that I built for myself. I have to accept it and work within those compounds, and it's up to me.

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.

Humanism is the creed of those who believe that in the circle of enwrapping mystery, men's fates are in their own hands—a faith that for modern man is becoming the only possible faith.

Laws provide against injury from others. God himself will not save men against their wills.

A child is the very sign and sacrament of personal freedom. He is a fresh will added to the wills of the world; he is something that his parents have freely chosen to produce ... he is their own creative contribution to creation.

My only fixed truth is a belief in people: a conviction that if people have the opportunity to act freely and the power to control their own destinies, they'll generally reach the right decisions.

We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.

There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make, makes you.

All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.

We are responsible for our own destiny. What matters is how we improve ourselves from this moment forward.