Quotes about purpose

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.

— James Allen

Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.

— James Allen

To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.

— James Allen

What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning

— Barbara De Angelis

Never be afraid to treat the path alone. Know which is your path and follow it wherever it may lead you; do not feel you have to follow in someone else's footsteps.

— Gita Bellin

One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house f the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. [Psalms 27:4]

— Bible

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. [Philippians 1:27]

— Bible

The purpose of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. [Proverbs 20:5]

— Bible

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [2 Corinthians 5:20]

— Bible

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward toward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

— Bible

The first principle of ethical power is Purpose. By purpose, I don't mean your objective or intention-something toward which you are always striving. Purpose is something bigger. It is the picture you have of yourself-the kind of person you want to be or the kind of life you want to lead.

— Ken Blanchard

What we must try to be, of course, is ourselves and wholeheartedly. We must find out what we really are and what we really want.

— Nelson Boswell

I just wake up and say, You're a bum, go do something worthwhile today.

— Garth Brooks

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

— John Mason Brown

If you don't stand up for something, you may fall for anything.

— Les Brown

You have to know what is right for you and go after it regardless of what others say.

— Les Brown

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

— Buddha

What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.

— Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.

— Leo Buscaglia

The purpose of man is in action not thought.

— Thomas Carlyle

The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder -- waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.

— Thomas Carlyle

Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.

— Amy Carmichael

Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.

— Dale Carnegie

The first thing to do in life is to do with purpose what one purposes to do.

— Pablo Casals

The sense of paralysis proceeds not so much out of the mammoth size of the problem but out of the puniness of the purpose.

— Norman Cousins

The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.

— Norman Cousins

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

— William Cowper

Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.

— William Cowper

The presence of a long-term, conscious goal has helped me maintain stability through the ubiquitous changes of over half a century.

— Craig Mary

No one sat me down with a piece of paper and said, ?This is what is expected of you. But I?m lucky enough in the fact that I have found my role I love being with people.?

— Princess of Wales Diana

I live for my sons. I would be lost without them.

— Princess of Wales Diana

Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose.

— Benjamin Disraeli

The secret to success is constancy to purpose.

— Benjamin Disraeli

A just cause is not ruined by a few mistakes.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.

— Wayne Dyer

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

— George Eliot

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

— George Eliot

I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose...

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bring me men to match my mountains: Bring me men to match my plains: Men with empires in their purpose and new eras in their brains.

— Sam Walter Foss

Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.

— Viktor E. Frankl

There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by unfolding of his powers.

— Erich Fromm

Be the business never so painful, you may have it done for money.

— Thomas Fuller

It is good to follow one's own bent, so long as it leads upward.

— Andre Gide

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A purpose you impart is no longer your own.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

At a turbulent public meeting once I lost my temper and said some harsh and sarcastic things. The proposal I was supporting was promptly defeated. My father who was there, said nothing, but that night, on my pillow I found a marked passage from Aristotle: Anybody can become angry--that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way -- that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.

— Arthur Gordon

I think that a lot of women are made to feel that they have not done the one thing that they were put on the earth to do if they didn't do the normal thing, if they didn't take the most traveled path. And it's unfortunate.

— Nanci Griffith

The purpose in life is to collaborate for a common cause; the problem is nobody seems to know what it is.

— Gerhard Gschwandtner

Many people flounder about in life because they do not have a purpose, an objective toward which to work.

— George Halas

The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.

— Dag Hammarskjold

Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.

— Dag Hammarskjold

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end

— Ernest Hemingway

Many good purposes lie in the churchyard.

— Philip Henry

Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes; lesser ones exist on wishes and inclinations.

— Kenneth Hildebrand

Multitudes of people, drifting aimlessly to and fro without a set purpose, deny themselves such fulfillment of their capacities, and the satisfying happiness which attends it. They are not wicked, they are only shallow. They are not mean or vicious; they simply are empty -- shake them and they would rattle like gourds. They lack range, depth, and conviction. Without purpose their lives ultimately wander into the morass of dissatisfaction. As we harness our abilities to a steady purpose and undertake the long pull toward its accomplishment, rich compensations reward us. A sense of purpose simplifies life and therefore concentrates our abilities; and concentration adds power.

— Kenneth Hildebrand

We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering. We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for.

— Eric Hoffer

For I say unto you in all sadness of conviction that to think great thoughts you must be heroes as well as idealists. Only when you have worked alone -- when you have felt around you are a black gulf of solitude more isolating than that which surrounds the dying man, and in hope and despair have trusted to your own unshaken will -- then only can you gain the secret isolated joy of the thinker, who knows that a hundred years after he is dead and forgotten men who have never heard of him will be moving to the measure of his thought -- the subtle rapture of postponed power, which the world knows not because it has no external trappings, but which to his prophetic vision is more real than that which commands an army. And if this joy should not be yours, still it is only thus you can know that you have done what lay in you to do -- can say that you have lived, and be ready for the end.

— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

The only way you can be successful on a post or win at it is to be at cause over it.

— L. Ron Hubbard

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

— Ken Hudgins

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.

— Washington Irving

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

— William James

The aims of life are the best defense against death.

— Primo Levi

Only the consciousness of a purpose that is mightier than any man and worthy of all men can fortify and inspirit and compose the souls of men.

— Walter Lippmann

Fear God and work hard.

— David Livingstone

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

— Niccolo Machiavelli

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.

— Malcolm X

I see no business in life but the work of Christ.

— Henry Martyn

Make sure the thing you're living for is worth dying for.

— Charles Mayes

If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.

— Margaret Mead

The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

The great and glorious masterpiece of man is how to live with purpose.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

Give me a man who says, This one thing I do, and not, These fifty things, I dabble in.

— Dwight L. Moody

Lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have.

— Arthur E. Morgan

There is no road to success but through a clear strong purpose. Nothing can take its place. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of every part.

— Thornton T. Munger

You are only as strong as your purpose, therefore let us choose reasons to act that are big bold righteous and eternal.

— Barry Munro

To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted.

— Mary O'Connor

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

— Thomas Paine

Purpose is what gives life a meaning.

— Charles H. Parkhurst

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

— Patanjali

It is your work in life that is your ultimate seduction.

— Pablo Picasso

A pilgrim is a wanderer with purpose.

— Peace Pilgrim

The whole life is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose.

— Plutarch

Mix a conviction with a man and something happens.

— Adam Clayton Powell

Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose.

— Proverb

Knowing our personal mission further enhances the flow of mysterious coincidences as we are guided toward our destinies. First we have a question, then dreams, daydreams, and intuitions lead us toward the answers, which usually are synchronistically provided by the wisdom of another human being.

— James Redfield

Everything happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves you.

— Anthony Robbins

It is essential that we enable young people to see themselves as participants in one of the most exciting eras in history, and to have a sense of purpose in relation to it.

— Nelson Rockefeller

Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.

— Theodore Roosevelt

To be a Sufi is to cease from taking trouble; and there is no greater trouble for thee than thine own self, for when thou art occupied with thyself, thou remainest away from God.

— Abu Sa'id

How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become -- to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.

— Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Man becomes greater in proportion to knowing himself and his faculties. Let him become conscious of what he is and he will soon also learn what he should be.

— Felix E. Schelling

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right.

— Charles M. Schulz

People should follow their own energy.

— Will Schultz

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

— Seneca