purpose quotes from influential philosophers, authors and people
"I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."
65
"A psychoneurosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning."
163
"To have a mission is to have a unifying focus for your career. It's more general than a specific job and can span multiple positions. It provides an answer to the question, What should I do with my life? Missions are powerful because they focus your energy toward a useful goal, and this in turn maximizes your impact on your world - a crucial factor in loving what you do."
207
"A good career mission is similar to a scientific breakthrough - it's an innovation waiting to be discovered in the adjacent possible of your field. If you want to identify a mission for your working life, therefore, you must first get to the cutting edge - the only place where these missions become visible."
208
"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
213
"The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues."
232
"It is within the power of every man to live his life nobly, but of no man to live forever. Yet so many of us hope that life will go on forever, and so few aspire to live nobly."
236
"I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine."
238
"A man should have an object or purpose in life, that he may direct all his energies to it; of course a good object. He who has not one object or purpose in life, cannot be one and the same all through his life."
346
"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."
370
"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."
378
"To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity."
383
"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want."
521
"By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning."
525
"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings."
540
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
542
"Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner."
543
"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."
551
"We make war that we may live in peace."
582
"Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation."
588
"Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need."
716
"The minute you choose a woman over your goals is the minute you lose them both."
830
"The collective cannot decide what is to be the purpose of a man’s existence nor prescribe his choice of happiness."
865
"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."
913
"Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for."
973
"To be is to do."
993
"Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present."
1032
"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
1033
"The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor."
1035
"Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies."
1043
"The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed."
1063
"If anyone on the verge of action should judge himself according to the outcome, he would never begin."
1074
"Each man delights in the work that suits him best."
1099
"Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter."
1174
"Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough."
1175
"Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do."
1178
"You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish."
1179
"Great minds ask great questions. The questions that engage our thought on a daily basis reflect our life purpose and influence the quality of our lives."
120
"Understand: people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself – your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose – they want to keep you down."
155
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being."
160
"Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose."
167
"In the long term, artificial intelligence and automation are going to be taking over so much of what gives humans a feeling of purpose."
299
"Man, the bravest of animals, and the one most accustomed to suffering, does not repudiate suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering."
421
"Ambition is enthusiasm with a purpose."
775
"The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights."
859