Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.
Viktor E. FranklRead
At such a moment, it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that mental suffering from perceived injustice can be more painful than physical pain.
Viktor E. Frankl's quote highlights the profound impact of psychological suffering, particularly stemming from a sense of injustice. Both adults and children experience mental anguish that can overshadow physical pain, suggesting that the emotional and cognitive elements of our experiences often carry greater weight in how we perceive suffering. This reflection on human pain underlines the importance of fairness and reason in our interactions and the deep psychological scars that unfair treatment can leave behind.
Themes
Mental AgonyInjusticePainSufferingReasonableness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the impact of bullying, one might use this quote to illustrate the emotional toll it takes.
More from Viktor E. Frankl
All quotes →The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear anymore—except his God.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
Viktor E. FranklRead
It is the pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Logotherapy sees the human patient in all his humanness. I step up to the core of the patient's being. And that is a being in search of meaning, a being that is transcending himself, a being capable of acting in love for others.
Viktor E. FranklRead
The more one forgives himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.
Viktor E. FranklRead
Similar quotes
There is never a shortage anywhere of lawyers eager to attack the First Amendment, as though it were nothing more than a clause in a lease from a crooked slumlord.
Kurt VonnegutRead
If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse.
George CarlinRead
When searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both actors and spectators.
Niels BohrRead
We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth. We tell people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above and that all these things are transitory. Does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives!
Hudson TaylorRead
The idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government) has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.
Alexander HamiltonRead
Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.
Calvin CoolidgeRead