"Man's Search for Meaning" Reading Notes#
Author: [Austrian] Viktor Frankl
Reading Duration: 0 hours
These are the notes and excerpts I recorded while reading "Man's Search for Meaning" on WeChat Reading.
Preface#
If in your lifetime of reading experiences, you can have such a book, where a certain chapter or a certain thought it contains not only touches your soul but also leads it to dance with it, even changing your daily life and destiny, then such a book you must often revisit and carefully cherish as a treasure.
Frankl discovered three possible ways to find meaning in life: work (doing meaningful things), love (caring for others), and having the courage to overcome difficulties. Suffering itself is meaningless, but we can give it meaning through our own response to suffering. Frankl points out that "in suffering, a person may still maintain courage, dignity, and selflessness, or may lose human dignity in fierce struggle for self-protection, becoming no different from lower animals."
Some uncontrollable forces may take many things from you, but the one thing they cannot take away is your freedom to choose how to respond to different situations. You cannot control what happens in life, but you can control your emotions and actions when facing these things.
Life is full of meaning, and people must discard the disturbances of the environment and learn to pursue the meaning of life.
We ultimately recognize the true nature of humanity. Remember, humanity refers not only to those who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz but also to those who silently recited God or the Virgin Mary and walked straight into the gas chambers.
If in your lifetime of reading experiences, you can have such a book, where a certain chapter or a certain thought it contains not only touches your soul but also leads it to dance with it, even changing your daily life and destiny, then such a book you must often revisit and carefully cherish as a treasure.
Frankl discovered three possible ways to find meaning in life: work (doing meaningful things), love (caring for others), and having the courage to overcome difficulties. Suffering itself is meaningless, but we can give it meaning through our own response to suffering. Frankl points out that "in suffering, a person may still maintain courage, dignity, and selflessness, or may lose human dignity in fierce struggle for self-protection, becoming no different from lower animals."
Some uncontrollable forces may take many things from you, but the one thing they cannot take away is your freedom to choose how to respond to different situations. You cannot control what happens in life, but you can control your emotions and actions when facing these things.
Life is full of meaning, and people must discard the disturbances of the environment and learn to pursue the meaning of life.
We ultimately recognize the true nature of humanity. Remember, humanity refers not only to those who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz but also to those who silently recited God or the Virgin Mary and walked straight into the gas chambers.
Self-Preface#
Do not just think about success— the more you think about success, the easier it is to fail. Success is like happiness; it can be encountered but not sought. It is a natural byproduct, a derivative that arises when a person unconsciously dedicates themselves to a great cause, or a byproduct of serving others. Happiness will eventually come, and so will success: often, it is the unintentional planting of willows that leads to shade. I hope all your actions obey your conscience and are realized through knowledge. One day you will find, of course, after a considerable amount of time—note, I say a long time later!—that it is precisely due to this lack of attention that success will come to you.
Do not just think about success— the more you think about success, the easier it is to fail. Success is like happiness; it can be encountered but not sought. It is a natural byproduct, a derivative that arises when a person unconsciously dedicates themselves to a great cause, or a byproduct of serving others. Happiness will eventually come, and so will success: often, it is the unintentional planting of willows that leads to shade. I hope all your actions obey your conscience and are realized through knowledge. One day you will find, of course, after a considerable amount of time—note, I say a long time later!—that it is precisely due to this lack of attention that success will come to you.
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