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Who really said it

He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how

Not Viktor Frankl — actually Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche 1844–1900 · German philosopher and classical philologist
Disputed In copyright

The aphorism is Nietzsche’s: Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols), ‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ (Maxims and Arrows) No. 12 — “Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie?” Frankl did use the line, twice, in Man’s Search for Meaning, and named Nietzsche both times. The reason it now travels under Frankl’s name is that the English wording is his book’s: it is Ilse Lasch’s 1959 translation of Frankl quoting Nietzsche, not any translation of Nietzsche — and the popular form has since dropped Lasch’s ‘for.’

Last verified 27 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how” Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie? —Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung, "Sprüche und Pfeile" 12 (Leipzig, 1889). The familiar English, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," is Ilse Lasch's translation of Viktor Frankl quoting Nietzsche in Man's Search for Meaning — not a translation of Nietzsche, and still in copyright. Public-domain English (Ludovici, 1911): "If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself."

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Viktor Frankl. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Viktor E. Frankl and the publishers of the Ilse Lasch translation (Beacon Press in the US) — for the English wording only). 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 Friedrich Nietzsche — German philosopher & classical philologist. Theme: "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how". 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.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how". 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
Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols), ‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ No. 12
Written / published
Drafted 26 August – 3 September 1888; published 1889 (Leipzig: C. G. Naumann), in German
Translation
The popular English is Ilse Lasch’s (1959 copyright) — translating Frankl, not Nietzsche. Free English: Ludovici, 1911
Author
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844–1900

Mit einem Ziele. — Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie? — Der Mensch strebt nicht nach Glück; nur der Engländer thut das. Twilight of the Idols, 1889

‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ No. 12, entire, in Nietzsche’s German. The famous half is the first clause; the second is a jab at English utilitarianism that quotation almost always discards.

Scanned German collected edition, Leipzig 1896
Nietzsche’s Werke, vol. 8, containing Götzen-Dämmerung
Quote Investigator — the translation history

How we traced it

  • The German is the primary text. Project Gutenberg’s Götzen-Dämmerung prints No. 12 as ‘Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie? — Der Mensch strebt nicht nach Glück; nur der Engländer thut das,’ and Wikiquote lists the same aphorism as Maxims and Arrows § 1.12 German text ↗.
  • No Nietzsche translator wrote the famous sentence. Ludovici’s 1911 English, edited by Oscar Levy for the Complete Works, gives No. 12 as ‘If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself’ — a rendering with no ‘why,’ no ‘how’ and no ‘bear’ in it at all Ludovici 1911 ↗.
  • The wording in circulation comes instead from Frankl’s book. Quote Investigator reproduces part one of Man’s Search for Meaning, translated by Ilse Lasch: ‘Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” could be the guiding motto…’ — and concludes that Nietzsche should receive the credit Quote Investigator ↗.
  • That translation is Frankl’s publisher’s, not Nietzsche’s. Frankl’s book appeared in German in 1946; the English came out in 1959 as From Death-Camp to Existentialism, with part one translated by Ilse Lasch and Beacon Press as the English publisher publication history ↗.
In copyright

Split, and this is the part people get wrong. Nietzsche’s German is public domain — published 1889, and he died in 1900 — so the original may be quoted and translated freely. But the English sentence you are about to reuse is not from a Nietzsche translation and is still in copyright: it descends from Ilse Lasch’s rendering of Frankl, whose translation copyright is dated 1959. Kaufmann’s and Hollingdale’s Nietzsche translations are also protected. For a free English text use Ludovici’s 1911 translation — ‘If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself’ — or translate the German yourself. This is not legal advice.

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

Right book, wrong author

Frankl is credited because the sentence people quote really does come out of his book — but he was quoting, and he said so, in the same breath, twice.

Viktor E. Frankl quoting, not coining

Both appearances in Man’s Search for Meaning name the source. Part one: ‘Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” could be the guiding motto…’ Part two: ‘There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche…’ Quote Investigator’s conclusion is that Frankl used the saying but credited Nietzsche the investigation ↗.

Ilse Lasch translator of Frankl, not of Nietzsche

‘He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how’ is Lasch’s English in part one of Frankl’s book. No Nietzsche translator produced that sentence: Common has ‘wherefore of life,’ Ludovici ‘the manner of it can take care of itself,’ Kaufmann ‘we shall get along with almost any how,’ Hollingdale ‘put up with almost any how’ side-by-side renderings ↗.

‘a why to live’ drifted

The version that spreads has lost Lasch’s ‘for’ while keeping her ‘with’ — a hybrid that is neither Nietzsche nor a clean quotation of Frankl’s page. Frankl’s part two uses a third form: ‘can bear almost any how’ both Frankl passages ↗.

Frankl quote pages Nietzsche dropped

Goodreads runs ‘He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How’ under the byline ‘— Viktor E. Frankl’ with no mention of Nietzsche anywhere on the page — which is how a quotation loses its author the attribution as displayed ↗.

‘only the Englishman does that’ truncated

The aphorism does not end where the quotation ends. It continues: ‘Der Mensch strebt nicht nach Glück; nur der Engländer thut das’ — man does not strive after happiness, only the Englishman does that German original ↗.

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote it — Götzen-Dämmerung (1889), ‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ No. 12. Frankl quoted it and credited him; what Frankl’s book supplied was the English Quote Investigator ↗.

Context

Why it travels under the wrong name

Frankl is the reason most people know the sentence at all. In part one of Man’s Search for Meaning he introduces it while arguing that restoring a prisoner’s inner strength meant first showing him some future goal, and calls Nietzsche’s words a possible ‘guiding motto’ for psychotherapeutic work with prisoners. In part two he returns to it as a motto that ‘holds true for any psychotherapy.’ Both times the credit to Nietzsche is right there in the sentence.

Nietzsche’s own use was lighter and considerably more sardonic. The aphorism sits in a run of one-line jabs and immediately turns into a joke: man does not strive after happiness, only the Englishman does that. Quotation keeps the first clause, drops the punchline, and a barbed aside becomes pure uplift.

The Nietzsche line everyone knows is Frankl's translator's English.

Six versions of the same sentence

German (1889): ‘Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie? — Der Mensch strebt nicht nach Glück; nur der Engländer thut das.’

Thomas Common, 1896 edition: ‘When one has one’s wherefore of life, one gets along with almost every how.’

Anthony M. Ludovici, 1911 edition: ‘If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.’

Walter Kaufmann, in The Portable Nietzsche: ‘If we have our own why of life, we shall get along with almost any how.’

R. J. Hollingdale, in the Penguin Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ: ‘If we possess our why of life we can put up with almost any how.’

Ilse Lasch, translating Frankl, part one: ‘He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how’ — and in part two, ‘He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.’ The circulating form is the first of these with ‘for’ knocked out.

Explore

Filed under

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

Purpose Resilience Hope

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.

Quote Origin: If We Have Our Own 'Why' of Life, We Shall Get Along With Almost Any 'How'quoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation — the 1889 German, the Common, Ludovici, Kaufmann and Hollingdale renderings, and both Frankl passages, each crediting Nietzsche.
Götzen-Dämmerung — the German textwww.gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg’s German text, where ‘Sprüche und Pfeile’ No. 12 appears in full, including the discarded second half.
The Twilight of the Idols (Ludovici translation, 1911)www.gutenberg.org

The public-domain English — ‘Maxims and Missiles’ No. 12 reads nothing like the popular wording.
Friedrich Nietzsche — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the aphorism as Twilight of the Idols (1889), Maxims and Arrows § 1.12, with the German alongside.
Man's Search for Meaning — publication historyen.wikipedia.org

Confirms the 1946 German original, the 1959 US edition From Death-Camp to Existentialism, Ilse Lasch as part-one translator, and Beacon Press as English publisher.
Nietzsche, Werke, vol. 8 (Leipzig, 1896)archive.org

A scanned German collected edition containing Götzen-Dämmerung, freely downloadable.

The true author

About Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844–1900 · German philosopher & classical philologist

Friedrich Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) began as a classical philologist and turned to philosophy. He drafted Twilight of the Idols in a little over a week — 26 August to 3 September 1888 — and it was printed and bound by January 1889, the month he suffered the breakdown in Turin that ended his working life. Its opening section, ‘Maxims and Arrows,’ is a run of forty-four one-line provocations; this is the twelfth. Its modern fame is largely secondhand, arriving through Man’s Search for Meaning rather than through Nietzsche’s own translators.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows 12

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Götzen-Dämmerung; oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt. Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1889. ‘Sprüche und Pfeile,’ no. 12. The familiar English wording is not from a Nietzsche translation: it is Ilse Lasch’s (1959 copyright) rendering of Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, part one, where Frankl quotes Nietzsche.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how’?” Last verified 27 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/he-who-has-a-why-to-live-can-bear-with-almost-any-how/

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