Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

The last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Sleep [is like] a dove which has landed near one's hand and stays there as long as one does not pay any attention to it.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Usually, to be sure, man considers only the stubble field of transitoriness and overlooks the full granaries of the past, wherein he had salvaged once and for all his deeds, his joys and also his sufferings. Nothing can be undone, and nothing can be done away with. I should say having been is the surest kind of being.

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.