|
Meaning |
|
| "Life's objective is life
itself." |
| -- Goethe |
|
| "The purpose of life is to
live a life of purpose." |
| -- Robert Byrne |
|
| "There is only one meaning of
life: the act of living itself." |
| -- Erich Fromm |
|
| "The only true happiness comes
from squandering ourselves for a purpose." |
| -- William Cowper |
|
| "After people have repeated a phrase a
great number of times, they begin to realize it has meaning and may
even be true." |
| -- H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells (1866-1946),
English author |
|
| "Great minds have purposes,
others have wishes." |
| -- Washington Irving |
|
| "As far as we can discern, the sole
purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of
mere being." |
| -- Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), Swiss psychiatrist |
|
| “Joy
can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and
have a definite objective in life outside themselves and their
personal happiness.” |
| --
Leo Tolstoy |
|
| "When one has great gifts,
what answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond
the right to exercise them?" |
| -- Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-73),
British-born American writer |
|
| "First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak." |
| -- Epictetus (50 AD - 138 AD) |
|
| "The meaning I picked, the one
that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder." |
| -- Æschylus (525-456 BC), Greek
tragic dramatist |
|
| "Only one who devotes himself
to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master.
For this reason mastery demands all of a person." |
| -- Albert Einstein (1875-1955),
German-born American theoretical physicist |
|
| "There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives to
his life by the unfolding of his powers." |
|
--
Erich Fromm |
|
| "Who knows why we live, and
struggle, and die?... Wise men write many books, in words too hard
to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all
our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom." |
| -- Alan Stewart Paton (1903-88),
South African writer |
|
| "He who has a why to
live for can bear almost any how." |
| -- Nietzsche |
|
| "This is the true joy in life -- being
used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one..." |
| -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), English
writer |
|
| "In our life there is a single
color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life
and art. It is the color of love." |
| -- Marc Chagall (1887-1985),
Russian-born artist |
|
| "I don't believe people are looking for
the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience
of being alive." |
| -- Joseph Campbell (1904-87), American
mythologist |
|
| "The Meaning Of Life: The reason that
we're all here is that it was too crowded where we were supposed to
go." |
| -- Steven Wright, Comedian |
|
| "You are not here merely to make a living.
You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with
greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are
here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget
the errand." |
| -- (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th US
President |
|
| "The devil can cite Scripture for his
purpose." |
| -- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), English
playwright |
|
| "The real distinction is between those who
adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality
in the light of their purposes." |
| -- Henry Kissinger |
|
| "The secret of success is constancy of
purpose." |
| -- Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881) |
|
| "A definite purpose, like blinders on a
horse, inevitably narrows its possessor's point of view." |
| -- Robert Frost (1874 - 1963), American poet |
|
| "The
meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our
attitude towards them." |
| -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
|
| "To forget one's purpose is the commonest
form of stupidity." |
| -- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) |
|
| "To be what we are, and to
become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of
life." |
| -- Baruch Spinoza |
|
| "One loses all the time which he might
employ to better purpose." |
| -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
|
| "The wise man thinks about his troubles
only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he
thinks about others things." |
| -- Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) |
|
| "If it is true that words have meanings, why don't we throw
away words and keep just the meanings?" |
| -- Ludwig Wittgenstein |
|
| "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 (1795 - 1881) |
|
| "I'm proof against that word failure. I've
seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of
cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best." |
| -- George Eliot (1819 - 1880) |
|
| "It all depends on how we look at things,
and not on how they are themselves." |
| -- Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), Swiss psychiatrist |
|
| "I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever
good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it
meaning and transform it into something of value." |
| -- Hermann Hesse |
|
| "Many persons have a wrong idea of what
constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through
self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." |
| -- Helen Keller |
|
| "What oxygen is to the lungs,
such is hope to the meaning of life." |
| -- Emil Brunner |
|
| "To do good thing in the
world, first you must know who you are and what gives meaning to
your life." |
| -- Robert Browning (1812-89),
British poet, |
|
| "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." |
| -- James Lane Allen (1849-1923), American
novelist |
|
| "What is the meaning of human life, or of
organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a
religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer,
the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as
meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for
life." |
| -- Albert Einstein (1875-1955), German-born
American theoretical physicist |
|
| "A man with a half volition goes backwards
and forwards, and makes no way on the smoothest road; a man with a
whole volition advances on the roughest, and will reach his purpose,
if there be even a little worthiness in it. The man without a
purpose is like a ship without a rudder - a 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 (1795-1881), British
historian, essayist |
|
| "Commitment means that it is possible for
a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or
cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him
than whether he lives or dies." |
| -- Howard Thurman |
|
| "The quest for certainty
blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to
impel man to unfold his powers." |
| -- Erich Fromm |
|
| "When we are not sure, we are
alive." |
| -- Graham Greene |
|
- "This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature
instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and
grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to
making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to
the whole community and as I live it is my privilege - my
*privilege* to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly
used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I love. I
rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me;
it is a sort of splendid torch which I've got a hold of for the
moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before
handing it on to future generations."
|
| -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) |
|
| "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in
order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater
vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are
here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you
forget the errand." |
| -- Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924) |
|
