"Man's Search for Meaning"

from “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl

“A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth —that love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret the human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in the world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in the positive action —in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfilment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”

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love is the light in the midst of the darkness

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Viktor Frankl survived the Nazi concentration camps in World War II and later wrote the beautiful “Man’s Search for Meaning” detailing his experience and the psychological lessons he learnt in the concentration camps. The above passage details how he was able to maintain his will to survive through his years in the camps and it is probably amongst the most beautiful passages written on love especially given Frankl’s circumstances and situation at the time.

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