Author: Viktor Frankl
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This is a quick read, but there’s a reason there are over twelve million copies of it in print worldwide. A reader survey for the Library of Congress put this book in one of the top ten books that can change your life.

First published in 1946, Frankl gives an account of what it was like to be a prisoner in Auschwitz. Through the devastation and disturbing account of what went on, we manage to hear the voice of a man coming out of the other end who chooses to move forward with purpose.

In the shadow of his experience, he synthesizes a new school of thought known as logotherapy, which holds our true purpose in life is to find meaning. In everything we do, in order to find fulfillment in life, we should always be pursuing something that gives us meaning.

His words resonate even stronger for us today. A few quotes:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

“Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.”

“So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”

“I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”

I would have to agree with the reader survey: truly a top ten book for life.