Was leuchten soll, muß dulden, daß es brennt.
(What is to give light must endure burning.)
— Anton Wildgans in his poem “Helldunkle Stunde” (1916). First published in Mittag: Neue Gedichte, (Leipzig, Germany: L. Staackmann Verlag, 1917), p. 90. Cited by and frequently attributed to Viktor Emil Frankl in The Doctor and the Soul: From psychotherapy to logotherapy, translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), p. 67. First published as Ärztliche Seelsorge: Grundlagen der Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse, (Wien, Germany: Franz Deuticke, 1946). Thanks to Annie Q. Syed for the lead.
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"Was leuchten soll, muß dulden, daß es brennt."
Alternate Translation
That which would give off light must endure the burning.
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