Quote of the Day: Psychotherapist Viktor Frankl on Choosing Your ‘Attitude in Any Given Set of Circumstances’

Many of us have often considered the “meaning of life”—and psychotherapist Viktor Frankl was no different. He spent much of his professional career focusing on “meaning” and how having a purpose can benefit people’s mental health, per the Viktor E. Frankl Institute of America.

Frankl was born on March 26, 1905, in Vienna, Austria, to a Jewish family, and became interested in psychology in junior high school, even corresponding with Sigmund Freud—another famous Austrian psychotherapist—as a teen. According to Britannica, he even asked permission to publish one of Frankl’s papers. 

Austria became part of Nazi Germany in 1938, antisemitism was increasing, and Frankl and his family were put into concentration camps by 1942. Per The Independent, Frankl spent three years in four camps before being liberated. With those tragic experiences making a mark on his perspective, our quote of the day comes from one of his most famous books, where he speaks to humanity and the freedom we have to choose to do the right thing.  

He was 37 when he was sent to the concentration camps, and as the Viktor E. Frankl Institute of America has said, his time in those camps “represented a short period in his long life.” When he was younger, he took an interest in researching depression and suicide, even helping teens in the city by setting up youth counseling centers. He got a doctorate in medicine in 1930 and spent years as the head of the female suicide prevention program of a hospital in Vienna, per Britannica. Right before he was taken in 1942, he had been a practicing neurologist and psychiatrist, and was the chief of neurology at the Rothschild Hospital in Vienna. 

In addition to the 39 books he authored, Frankl is known for developing the “third school” of Viennese psychotherapy, known as “logotherapy,” per Britannica. This theory proposed that human beings’ “primary motivation” is “the search for meaning in life,” and that the sole purpose of psychotherapy was to help people find that deeper significance.

Again, with his traumatic time in the camps and his studies, today’s quote is a poignant reminder that no matter what, we always have a choice of attitude and action—it’s up to you what you choose to do in the best and the worst of days. 

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Quote of the Day by Viktor Frankl

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

This quote comes from Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning. As the foreword says, this is “a book about survival”; Frankl was first put into the Theresiendstadt ghetto (a transit camp) in 1942, per Britannica. He arrived there with both of his parents and his wife, whom he’d just married nine months prior. 

In this book, Frankl recounts his time in these camps and provides his insight into the human mind and our “will to find meaning in spite of the worst adversity,” the book description reads. It was published in German in 1946 and then in English in 1959. The first chapter is titled “Experience in a Concentration Camp,” which is where he writes this. The full quote is: 

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. 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 choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

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Deeper Meaning of Viktor Frankl’s Quote—‘To Choose One’s Attitude in Any Given Set of Circumstances’

On its own, the quote is meaningful and highlights the potential for good in humankind. But in the context of Frankl writing this when talking about his time in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, it just makes it all the more powerful. 

According to the Viktor Frankl Institute, he was brought to the Theresienstadt ghetto with three family members. His father died there, his mother was killed immediately in a gas chamber in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and his wife died in the Bergen-Belsen camp. Frankl spent most of his time at Kaufering and then Tuerkheim, which are subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp.

In the passages right before this quote, Frankl explains how he worked as a doctor in the typhus block of the camps. He described the conditions and the cruelty of those in charge, and then the apathy of “inmates” who were ill. He notes that his description of it all might insinuate that humans are “completely and unavoidably influenced” by their surroundings. He then presents a lot of questions branching off of that: “But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings?”

That’s where the above paragraph comes in, where he says that those questions can be answered by looking at the resilience he experienced in the camps. To him, that shows that humans do “have a choice of action.” He believes that the person those imprisoned people became was all based on “the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone.” He’s essentially saying that even at your lowest point, you can choose to be kind at the very least, and maybe resilient and even defiant at the most.

Even when “everything” is taken from someone, you’re still left with one thing: your freedom of autonomy. To choose how you act given your situation. No one would fault you for being upset about your circumstances, but you can also choose your “own way.” You can choose not to give in to the despair your situation causes you. It’s easier said than done, and you, of course, don’t want to give in to the pitfalls of magical thinking or toxic positivity. However, this quote just reminds us that we can choose to be our best selves in the face of adversity. 

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More Quotes from Viktor Frankl

• “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
• “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
• “But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.”
• “An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.”
• “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, 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.”
• “In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

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