Purpose Quotes

Self fulfillment thinks of how something serves me. Self development thinks of how something helps me to serve others. With self fulfillment, feeling good is the product. With self development, feeling good is the by-product.

Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness, for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so he loves also the bow that is stable.

May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will leave the world a little better for your having been here.

Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.

Vulnerable people are powerful people. Opening your heart and sharing it means you're going to get so much love in your life. and it's the way to true connection and real purpose and meaning in your life, in my opinion.

Be a gift and a benediction.

Everything that happens before Death is what counts.

If your knowledge teaches you not to rise above human weakness and misery and lead your fellow man on the right path, you are indeed a man of little worth and will remain such till Judgment Day.

Whats the point of fitting in, when we were meant to stand out?

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure.

The only true test of values, either of men or of things, is that of their ability to make the world a better place in which to live.

There is only one time that is important-Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary person is the one with whom you are, for no person knows whether he or she will ever have dealings with anyone else: and the most important affair is, to do the person good, because for that purpose alone were human beings sent into this life!

Nature of man is not what he was born as, but what he is born for.

The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims.

Your calling isn’t something that somebody can tell you about. It’s what you feel. It is the thing that gives you juice. The thing that you are supposed to do. And nobody can tell you what that is. You know it inside yourself.

Our problem is not that we desire too much but too little.

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Being prime minister isn't the only job in life! As far as I'm concerned, I could live in a village and be satisfied.

If you follow your bliss...the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

I hope to die right in the middle of a song and right on the stage doing what I love to do. I hope to be about 120 when that happens.

If I thought it was my identity to be a spiritual teacher, that would be a delusion. It's not an identity. It's simply a function in this world.

The individual feels the vanity of human desires and aims, and the nobility and marvelous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought. He feels the individual destiny as an imprisonment and seeks to experience the totality of existence as a unity full of significance.

We get to make a living; we give to make a life.

Idleness, pleasure, what abysses! To do nothing is a dreary course to take, be sure of it. To live idle upon the substance of society! To be useless, that is to say, noxious! This leads straight to the lowest depth of misery.

The purpose of the present study is not as it is in other inquiries, the attainment of knowledge, we are not conducting this inquiry in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, else there would be no advantage in studying it. For that reason, it becomes necessary to examine the problem of our actions and to ask how they are to be performed. For as we have said, the actions determine what kind of characteristics are developed.

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence.

A man must choose his own way of life, and…it is only by following out one’s own bent that there can be the really harmonious life.” [In an interview conducted by Bram Stoker]

Everybody's life is either rewarding or an example.

But earthlier happy is the rose distill'dThan that which withering on the virgin thornGrows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

To speak freely of mathematics, I find it the highest exercise of the spirit; but at the same time I know that it is so useless that I make little distinction between a man who is only a mathematician and a common artisan. Also, I call it the most beautiful profession in the world; but it is only a profession.

It is not more vacation we need — it is more vocation.

If thousands are thrown out of employment, it suggests that they were not well employed. Why don't they take the hint? It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?

Who is the poorest man in the world? I tell you, the poorest man I know of is the man who has nothing but money.

Even a small act of compassion grants meaning and purpose to our lives.

The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart.

To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for all of us; and surely it is a good haven to sail for.

Piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.

The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover it was never fish that you were after.

Everything we do is futile, but we must do it anyway.

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

Ignoring your passion is like dying a slow death...Passion whispers to you through your feelings, beckoning you toward your highest good. Pay attention to what makes you feel energized, connected, stimulated- what gives you your juice. Do what you love, give it back in the form of service, and you will do more than succeed. You will triumph.

I have a sense of greatness, which comes from feeling that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing on the planet - empowering people, especially women.

The key is not to worry about being successful, but to instead to work toward being significant - and the success will naturally follow.

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.

Men are born to write. The gardener saves every slip, and seed, and peach-stone: his vocation is to be a planter of plants. Not less does the writer attend his affair. Whatever he beholds or experiences, comes to him as a model, and sits for its picture. He counts it all nonsense that they say, that some things are undescribable. He believes that all that can be thought can be written, first or last; and he would report the Holy Ghost, or attempt it.

I've always wanted to make a career in the arts, and I think that my only hope at doing that is to make it more about the work.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.

It is by his activities and not by enjoyment that man feels he is alive. In idleness we not only feel that life is fleeting, but we also feel lifeless.

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. . . . In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

Happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.

A purpose you impart is no longer your own.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life. All that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

People have a seed to success within them. Most never find it and therefore fail to reach their potential. Occasionally, a leader discovers it and helps that individual develop it. For both, they now can fulfill the purpose for which they are born.

Play needs direction as well as work.

If you're not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us, and it can't be of very much use to yourself.

I consider those are rich who are doing something they feel worthwhile and which they enjoy doing.