Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

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Topic

Success Dedication Happiness

Author

Viktor Frankl

Source

Man's Search for Meaning

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

German

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Occupation

Holocaust survivor Psychiatrist Writer

From

Austria Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frankl, Victor. …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager [Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy]. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946.

Current Citation

Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1940s

There's no business like show business.

Irving Berlin

There's No Business Like Show Business

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Topic
Hollywood Show business
Speaker
Ethel Merman

Author

Irving Berlin
Source
There's No Business Like Show Business
Medium
Song
Genre
Great American songbook
Language
English
Time
1946 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Berlin, Irving. "There's No Business Like Show Business." Annie Get Your Gun. Performed by Ethel Merman. 1946, Imperial Theatre, New York City, NY, USA, act 1.

Another quote about Happiness

How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea... All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Zorba the Greek

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Topic
The little things Happiness

Author

Nikos Kazantzakis
Source
Zorba the Greek
Medium
Novel
Language
Greek
Time
1946 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Kazantzakis, Nikos. Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Life and State of Alexis Zorba]. Athens: Dimitrakou, 1946, ch. 7.

Current Citation

Kazantzakis, Nikos. Zorba the Greek, translated by Peter Bien. Simon & Schuster, 2014, ch. 7.

Another quote from 1946

Anything you can do, I can do better, I can do anything better than you.

Irving Berlin

Anything You Can Do

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More information about this quote
Topic
Men and women

Author

Irving Berlin
Source
Anything You Can Do
Medium
Song
Genre
Great American songbook
Language
English
Time
1946 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Berlin, Irving. "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)." Annie Get Your Gun. Directed by Joshua Logan. Performed by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. 16 May 1946, Imperial Theatre, New York City, NY, USA.

Another quote originally in German

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good and Evil

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More information about this quote
Topic
Dangerous ideas Power of ideas

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche
Source
Beyond Good and Evil
Genre
Philosophical literature
Statement Type
Proverbs, aphorisms and adages
Language
German
Time
1886 1880s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft [Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future]. Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1886, ch. 4, no. 146.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 4, no. 146.

Another quote of the following type Paradox

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.

Ecclesiastes 1:7

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More information about this quote
Topic
Ocean and sea
Source
Ecclesiastes The Bible
Medium
Scripture
Genre
Religious literature
Statement Type
Paradox
Language
Hebrew
Time
931 BC 930s BC 10th century BC
Era
Classical antiquity
Authentication Score 3
Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Ecclesiastes 1:7).