David Brooks introduces Viktor Frankl halfway through Frances Perkins’s story to provide an example of someone who didn’t ask things of life, but rather responded to what life was asking of him. Viktor Frankl was a writer interned in a concentration camp during World War II. While there, he helped other prisoners cope with the horrendous circumstances by telling them that life still expected things of them. In this way, he preached that one can’t control the circumstances that make them suffer, but they can control their response to the suffering. This supports Brooks’s claim that a person doesn’t choose their life, but rather builds their character through the way they respond to their circumstances.
Viktor Frankl Quotes in The Road to Character
The The Road to Character quotes below are all either spoken by Viktor Frankl or refer to Viktor Frankl . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2: The Summoned Self
Quotes
In [Frances Perkins’s] method, you don’t ask, What do I want from life? You ask a different set of questions: What does life want from me? What are my circumstances calling me to do? In this scheme of things we don’t create our lives; we are summoned by life.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Road to Character LitChart as a printable PDF.
Viktor Frankl Quotes in The Road to Character
The The Road to Character quotes below are all either spoken by Viktor Frankl or refer to Viktor Frankl . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2: The Summoned Self
Quotes
In [Frances Perkins’s] method, you don’t ask, What do I want from life? You ask a different set of questions: What does life want from me? What are my circumstances calling me to do? In this scheme of things we don’t create our lives; we are summoned by life.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
