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Who really said it

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

Written by Viktor Frankl 1905–1997 · Viennese neurologist, psychiatrist & founder of logotherapy
Verified In copyright

Genuinely Frankl, and unusually easy to check. It is in Part One of Man’s Search for Meaning — the camp memoir Ilse Lasch translated from his 1946 German book — and we read it on p. 104 of the scanned 1963 Washington Square Press printing. In the book it is not a standalone maxim but the end of a longer sentence about men who gave away their last piece of bread.

Last verified 24 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“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” Verified. Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, Part One translated by Ilse Lasch (New York: Washington Square Press, 1963), 104. Part One is the English translation of Frankl's German memoir published in Vienna in 1946; the English text first appeared as From Death-Camp to Existentialism (Beacon Press, 1959). — Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Viktor E. Frankl’s estate and Beacon Press; English translation of Part One by Ilse Lasch). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Viktor Frankl — Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist & Holocaust survivor. Theme: "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". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "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". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work
Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy
Location
Part One, “Experiences in a Concentration Camp” — p. 104 in the 1963 Washington Square Press printing
Translation
Part One translated by Ilse Lasch
First published
German, Vienna, 1946; in English as From Death-Camp to Existentialism, Beacon Press, 1959

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. Man’s Search for Meaning, p. 104

The famous words are the end of a longer sentence. The “they” are the men Frankl had just described walking through the huts comforting others and giving away their last piece of bread — quoted alone, the line loses the evidence it was drawn from.

1963 paperback, scanned
Read the scanned 1963 Washington Square Press printing
From Death-Camp to Existentialism (Beacon Press, 1959) — the first English edition

How we verified this

  • We read the sentence in the book. The scanned 1963 Washington Square Press printing ↗ carries it on p. 104, inside Part One (“Experiences in a Concentration Camp,” pp. 3–148), immediately after the passage about men giving away their last piece of bread.
  • That edition’s own front matter credits “Part One translated by ILSE LASCH,” gives the original title as From Death-Camp to Existentialism, notes that both editions were originally published by Beacon Press, and carries “Copyright, ©, 1959, 1963, by Viktor E. Frankl” (same scan ↗).
  • The Internet Archive’s catalogue record for the 1959 Beacon Press edition ↗ lists it as Boston: Beacon Press, 1959 and as a translation of Frankl’s German concentration-camp memoir, matching the publication history given for the book on Wikipedia ↗.
  • Nothing contradicts it: Quote Investigator has no article on the phrase, and Wikiquote ↗ lists no disputed or misattributed entry for it — the wording appears there only inside a 2023 essay quoting Frankl.
In copyright

In copyright. The German memoir was published in Vienna in 1946 and the English text — Ilse Lasch’s translation of Part One — first appeared in the United States in 1959 as From Death-Camp to Existentialism (Beacon Press); the printing we verified carries “Copyright, ©, 1959, 1963, by Viktor E. Frankl.” Both the German original and this translation are far too recent to be public domain in the United States, so quote the sentence with attribution rather than reproducing the passage at length.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

A real quote with fake company

This one is authentic, which makes it unusual for a name this heavily quoted. The problems around it are not invention but drift: a famous line that is not Frankl’s travels alongside it, the sentence is routinely re-cut, and the date attached to it belongs to a book written in another language.

Stephen R. Covey, credited to Frankl Not Frankl

Constantly quoted as Frankl’s and often paired with this line. The Viktor Frankl Institute ↗ says it did not come from Frankl: Covey recounted finding it in a library book and thinking it fitted Frankl’s views, but never noted the book’s author or title. Wikiquote ↗ files it under Covey with the note that it is widely and incorrectly attributed directly to Frankl.

Everyone who quotes it Re-cut

On p. 104 of the 1963 edition ↗ the words are the tail of a longer sentence about the few men who comforted others and gave away their bread — they “offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing…” The familiar version promotes a subordinate clause to a maxim by capitalising “Everything.”

Quote sites and slide decks Wrong language

The 1946 book is in German. This English wording is Ilse Lasch’s translation of Part One, first published in the United States in 1959 as From Death-Camp to Existentialism — see the Beacon Press catalogue record ↗ and the book’s publication history ↗.

Verdict: the quotation is real. Viktor Frankl wrote it, and you can read it on p. 104 of the scanned 1963 printing ↗ of Man’s Search for Meaning. What is not real is the “space between stimulus and response” line so often quoted beside it.

Context

A conclusion, not a slogan

Frankl has just posed a hard question to himself: were the inmates of the camps simply the product of their surroundings? He answers it with something he watched rather than something he theorised — the handful of men who walked the huts comforting others and handing over their last piece of bread. They were few, he says, and that is exactly the point: a few were enough to prove the thing could be done. The famous sentence is the conclusion he draws from them.

Quoted alone it reads as an aphorism about attitude, which is how it ended up on a million posters. On the page it is narrower and harder: Frankl is not saying circumstances do not matter — the surrounding pages are about apathy, irritability, and men who did become “the plaything of circumstance.” He is saying one specific freedom survived, and that some people used it.

He reached it by watching men give away their last piece of bread — not by writing a maxim.

Which language is the ‘original’?

Frankl wrote in German. His memoir was published in Vienna in 1946, and the English wording everyone quotes is Ilse Lasch’s translation, first published in the United States in 1959 as From Death-Camp to Existentialism (Beacon Press) and reissued from 1963 under the title Man’s Search for Meaning. So the thought is Frankl’s and the sentence is Frankl’s, but the particular English cadence — “the last of the human freedoms” — is a translator’s choice, as it is with any translated author.

That also means dating the quotation to 1946 and then quoting it in English is a small mismatch. The 1946 book is German; this sentence, in these words, dates from the English translation.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Freedom Resilience Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Man's Search for Meaning — 1963 Washington Square Press printingarchive.org

Scanned edition with full text. The sentence is on p. 104, inside Part One; the front matter names Ilse Lasch as translator of Part One.
From Death-Camp to Existentialism (1959)archive.org

Catalogue record for the first English edition — Boston: Beacon Press, 1959, described as a translation of Frankl's German concentration-camp memoir.
Viktor Frankl on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations from Man's Search for Meaning, plus the note that the 'between stimulus and response' line is Stephen Covey's and is incorrectly attributed to Frankl.
Viktor Frankl Institute — 'Between stimulus and response'viktorfrankl.org

The Institute's own page explaining that this widely circulated quotation did not come from Frankl; Covey found it in a library book he never identified.
Man's Search for Meaningen.wikipedia.org

Publication history: German original Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager (Vienna, 1946); first English translation From Death-Camp to Existentialism (Beacon Press, 1959), Part One translated by Ilse Lasch.

The author

About Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl

1905–1997 · Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist & Holocaust survivor

Viktor Emil Frankl was a Viennese neurologist and psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, the school of psychotherapy built on the idea that the primary human drive is a search for meaning. Deported in 1942, he survived Auschwitz and a satellite camp of Dachau; his wife and mother did not. The short memoir he wrote afterwards — published in Vienna in 1946 and in English from 1959 — became one of the most widely read books of the century, and made him a fixture on lecture circuits and, eventually, on motivational posters.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, Part One trans. Ilse Lasch (New York: Washington Square Press, 1963), 104. Part One is the English translation of Frankl’s German memoir published in Vienna in 1946; the English text first appeared as From Death-Camp to Existentialism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1959).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘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’?” Last verified 24 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/everything-can-be-taken-from-a-man-but-one-thing-the-last/

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