We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
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.
[...]
In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.
Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.
– Viktor Frankl “Man’s Search for Meaning”
Pieces of these two passages have been used for decades, but rarely do I see the whole paragraphs with context. I believe the full context applies here. We can give up, or we can triumph, the difference “depends on decisions but not on circumstances”. Some humans have it within them to persevere in any situation. Remember them, and always strive to be more like them.
I only realized halfway through that this was a quote. Suggestion: format it as one. (On desktop, by selecting all the quote text and then choosing the quotation mark symbol.)
MondSemmel is correct but if you don’t want to use the menu, type “> ” at the start of a new line and it will begin a quote block (you can also use >! for spoiler tags).
I just tried it on mobile in a browser, and it works the same there: edit your comment via the ⋮ menu in the top right, and select the text of the paragraphs you want to turn into a quote. Then a popup with formatting options opens where you can find the quotation formatting behind another ⋮ option.
– Viktor Frankl “Man’s Search for Meaning”
Pieces of these two passages have been used for decades, but rarely do I see the whole paragraphs with context. I believe the full context applies here. We can give up, or we can triumph, the difference “depends on decisions but not on circumstances”. Some humans have it within them to persevere in any situation. Remember them, and always strive to be more like them.
I am long the human race (in the economic sense).
I only realized halfway through that this was a quote. Suggestion: format it as one. (On desktop, by selecting all the quote text and then choosing the quotation mark symbol.)
I edited it.
Thank you!
Don’t have access on desktop. Is there a way to format via mobile?
MondSemmel is correct but if you don’t want to use the menu, type “> ” at the start of a new line and it will begin a quote block (you can also use >! for spoiler tags).
Thanks!
I just tried it on mobile in a browser, and it works the same there: edit your comment via the ⋮ menu in the top right, and select the text of the paragraphs you want to turn into a quote. Then a popup with formatting options opens where you can find the quotation formatting behind another ⋮ option.