Victor Frankl's Book

Right now I'm reading Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. He recounts his time spent in Nazi death camps and how he survived both spiritually and physically.  He talks about our primary human drive coming not from pleasure but from the pursuit of what we find meaningful. There were lots of little things that led to me choosing a book like this. . .one thing being Tim Keller mentioning this book in a sermon. Here are a few quotes. And of course, please read this book if you haven't. I bet you won't be sorry.

"Only slowly could these men be guided back to the commonplace truth that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them."

Now sit on that for a minute. This is coming from a man who endured the worst forms of suffering. Surely it applies to some of our day to day opportunities for grievances, petty or otherwise.

"The prisoner who had lost his faith in the future--his future--was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay . . . There he remained, lying in his own excreta, and nothing bothered him anymore."

"Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man--his courage and hope, or lack of them--and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect."

"Emotion--which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear picture of it"
-Spinoza, quoted by Frankl

"They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to chose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

"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."