Seraphical Dreams.

Saturday, 2 January 2010

"A man can get used to anything, but do not ask us how."

'He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.'

When we are no longer able to change a situation – just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer – we are challenged to change ourselves."

"Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp."

* "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways:
(1) by creating a work or doing a deed;
(2) by experiencing a something or encountering someone;
and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering."

"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

"Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary."

"Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death." (Cf. Song of Solomon 8:6)

"A man who for years had thought he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that suffering had no limits, and that he could suffer still more, and more intensely."

"Woe to him, when the day of his dreams finally came, found it to be so different from all that he had longed for!"

"We were not hoping for happiness – And yet we were not prepared for unhappiness."

"An incurable psychotic individual may lose his usefulness but yet retain the dignity of a human being. This is my psychiatric credo."

"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

"Freedom is not the last word, freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. The positive aspect of freedom is responsibleness." "That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

21:23