Motivational Quotes

Purpose

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

- Cowper, William

Best Quotes about Purpose

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.

Blanchard, Ken

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Winners are people with definite purpose in life.

Waitley, Denis

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

Mayes, Charles

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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.

Roosevelt, Theodore

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.

Carlyle, Thomas

He who clings to life shall lose it -- but losing it in a right cause will gain it.

Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.

Ustinov, Peter

10.

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.

Redfield, James

11.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

12.

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

13.

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

Hudgins, Ken

14.

What on earth are you doing for Heaven's sake?

15.

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

Allen, James

16.

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.

Gordon, Arthur

17.

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.

Lippmann, Walter

18.

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

Bible

19.

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

Dyer, Wayne

20.

Pep without purpose is piffle.

21.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

22.

Ordinary people think merely of spending time. Great people think of using it.

23.

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.

Munger, Thornton T.

24.

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

25.

All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.

Thurber, James

26.

Every man is occasionally visited by the suspicion that the planet on which he is riding is not really going anywhere; that the Force which controls its measured eccentricities hasn't got anything special in mind. If he broods on this somber theme long enough he gets the doleful idea that the laughing children on a merry-go-round or the thin, fine hands of a lady's watch are revolving more purposely than he is.

Thurber, James

27.

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

Casals, Pablo

28.

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

Angelis, Barbara De

29.

In a just cause the weak will beat the strong.

Sophocles

30.

Better to die of something than to die in old age of nothing.

Sharpman, Al

31.

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

Buscaglia, Leo

32.

Mix a conviction with a man and something happens.

Powell, Adam Clayton

33.

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

34.

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

Gschwandtner, Gerhard

35.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

36.

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

Frankl, Viktor E.

37.

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

Cousins, Norman

38.

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.

Griffith, Nanci

39.

Your cause belongs to those that can avenge your wrongs.

Winkworth

40.

Are we interested in sight seeing or soul saving?

41.

A purpose you impart is no longer your own.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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.

Hammarskjold, Dag

43.

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

Fuller, Thomas

44.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

45.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

46.

What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

47.

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.

Carmichael, Amy

48.

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.

Allen, James

49.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Eliot, George

50.

Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.

Tolstoy, Count Leo