This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl
In a last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious "Yes" in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose. At that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which stood on the horizon as if painted there, in the midst of the miserable gray of a dawning morning in Bavaria. "Et lux in tenebris lucet"-and the light shineth in the darkness.
Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl
Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill. It is only thus that we evoke his will to meaning from its state of latency. I consider it a dangerous misconception of mental hygiene to assume that what man needs in the first place is equilibrium or, as it is called in biology homeostasis, i.e., a tensionless state. What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.
Body | Cause | Courage | Death | Hope | Mind | Will | Loss | Understand |
Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl
Tears came to his eyes and I tried to comfort him. Then there was something else to do — to make my will: “Listen, Otto, if I don’t get back home to my wife, and if you should see her again, then tell her that I talked of her daily, hourly. You remember. Secondly, I have loved her more than anyone. Thirdly, the short time I have been married to her outweighs everything, even all we have gone through here.”
Accomplishment | Death | Fate | Friend | Man | Thought | Fate | Thought |
Even God blesses only those who are contemplative, intelligent and the protectors of the weak.
Viktor Frankl, fully Viktor Emil Frankl
And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate.
Death | Enjoyment | Existence | Fate | Fulfillment | Giving | Life | Life | Man | Meaning | Opportunity | Purpose | Purpose | Suffering | Fate |
We may remark in passing that to be blind and beloved may, in this world where nothing is perfect, be among the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness.
You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for ones self-respect to be a punching bag.
That which pleases His Will has come to pass; no one else can do anything.
It is foolish to try to shape the World; shape yourself as the embodiment of Peace, Love and Reverence. Then you will see all as Love, Compassion and Humility.
Death |
Prayer for some benefit or gain should not be addressed to God, for it means that God waits until He is asked. Surrender to Him; He will deal with you as He feels best and it will be the best for you.
Death |
Through this oblation, that causes prosperity, may this man flourish anew; may he excel the wife that they have brought to him with his sap.
We should imbibe this unique quality of the sun and enhance one's internal energies.
To live for hundred years it is important that the body is healthy, devoid of weakness and ailments.
The One Lord and Master dwells in the home; He is seen in the wilderness as well. I have become fearless; the Saint has removed my doubts.
Death |
The Perfect Lord is All-pervading everywhere; He destroys the poison of Maya. I am rid of the three-phased Maya, dwelling in the Pure Lord.
Death |