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

Tracing this line back to its German original settles the question: in "Maxims and Arrows," aphorism 12 of *Twilight of the Idols*, Nietzsche wrote "Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie?" — literally "If one has one's why of life, one gets along with almost every how." The familiar English wording "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how" is a polished translation of that authentic maxim, not a separate composition. The confusion with Viktor Frankl is understandable, since Frankl quoted this line repeatedly in *Man's Search for Meaning* and popularized the English phrasing, but Frankl himself credited Nietzsche and was plainly quoting him rather than originating the thought. The suggestion that no matching text exists in Nietzsche's corpus does not hold up against the primary text, which contains the aphorism verbatim in German. Because the wording traces directly to a specific, identifiable passage authored by Nietzsche, this attribution is verified.