Viktor E. Frankl Quotes

Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

I consider adversity being good sometimes, you know.

Mortals grow swiftly in misfortune.

Even though you find yourself in an intolerable position, one in which you think you have no right to be, accept it here and now as the Cross; then, later, you can plan how to do better.

Man's soul is strengthened by suffering.

Pain is the great teacher of mankind. Beneath its breath souls develop.

Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels.

I think the person who has had more experience of hardships can stand more firmly in the face of problems than the person who has never experienced suffering. From this angle then, some suffering can be a good lesson for life.

To build character of purpose and integrity is our high mark, and that cannot be done in a world where there are no adverse elements.

Suffering is also good, it makes a person rich in charachter.

Every problem is a character-building opportunity, and the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fiber.

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable.

Sorrow and suffering make for character if they are voluntarily borne, but not if they are imposed.

Anyone can see the adversity in a difficult situation, but it takes a stronger person to see the opportunity.

Early happiness handicaps people. I do not regret having been profoundly unhappy.

I don't see life as an opportunity to see how far you can go in the pursuit of pain, although I think I've challenged it a bit.

When Heaven is about to confer a great office on a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil ; it exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty ; it confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.

I know starting careers in troubled times is a challenge, but it is also a privilege. Because it's moments like these that force us to try harder, dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had. To find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don't ever shy away from that endeavor. Don't stop adding to your body of work. I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort as will be this nation that we all love.

Failure, then, failure! so the world stamps us at every turn. We strew it with our blunders, our misdeeds, our lost opportunities, with all the memorials of our inadequacy to our vocation. And with what a damning emphasis does it then blot us out! No easy fine, no mere apology or formal expiation, will satisfy the world's demands, but every pound of flesh exacted is soaked with all its blood. The subtlest forms of suffering known to man are connected with the poisonous humiliations incidental to these results.

There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.

Strong and rare natures are thus created; misery, almost always a stepmother, is sometimes a mother; privation gives birth to power of soul and mind; distress is the nurse of self-respect; misfortune is a good breast for great souls.

Whenever God means to make a man great, he always breaks him in pieces first.

A high character might be produced, I suppose, by continued prosperity, but it has very seldom been the case. Adversity, however it may appear to be our foe, is our true friend; and, after a little acquaintance with it, we receive it as a precious thing - the prophecy of a coming joy. It should be no ambition of ours to traverse a path without a thorn or stone.

There are no times in life when opportunity, the chance to be and do, gathers so richly about the soul as when it has to suffer. Then everything depends on whether the man turns to the lower or the higher helps. If he resorts to mere expedients and tricks the opportunity is lost. He comes out harder, poorer, smaller for his pain. But, if he turns to God, the hour of suffering is the turning hour of his life.