Motivational Quotes

Purpose

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

- Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Best Quotes about Purpose

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

Eliot, George

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

Munro, Barry

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.

Holmes Jr., Oliver Wendell

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

Buscaglia, Leo

We know there is intention and purpose in the universe, because there is intention and purpose in us.

Shaw, George Bernard

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

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

Buddha

People should follow their own energy.

Schultz, Will

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.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

10.

For an athlete to function properly, he must be intent. There has to be a definite purpose and goal if you are to progress. If you are not intent about what you are doing, you aren't able to resist the temptation to do something else that might be more fun at the moment.

Wooden, John

11.

The aims of life are the best defense against death.

Levi, Primo

12.

Many good purposes lie in the churchyard.

Henry, Philip

13.

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

Tolstoy, Count Leo

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

O'Connor, Mary

17.

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.

Carnegie, Dale

18.

The crowning blessing of life is to be born with a bias to some pursuit.

Tallentyre, S. G.

19.

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.

Foss, Sam Walter

20.

A pilgrim is a wanderer with purpose.

Pilgrim, Peace

21.

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

22.

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

Brown, Les

23.

Anyone can live heroically and successfully for one day. The man who achieves a high purpose makes that day the pattern for all the days of his life.

24.

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

Craig Mary

25.

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.

Boswell, Nelson

26.

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

Casals, Pablo

27.

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

28.

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

Martyn, Henry

29.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

31.

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

32.

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

Gschwandtner, Gerhard

33.

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

34.

A purpose you impart is no longer your own.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

35.

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

Seneca

36.

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

37.

What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

38.

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.

Socrates

39.

Don't become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.

Ziglar, Zig

40.

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

Halas, George

41.

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

Hudgins, Ken

42.

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

Proverb

43.

Mix a conviction with a man and something happens.

Powell, Adam Clayton

44.

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

45.

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.

Stone, W. Clement

46.

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

Brooks, Garth

47.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

48.

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.?

Diana, Princess of Wales

49.

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.

Hoffer, Eric

50.

The purpose of man is in action not thought.

Carlyle, Thomas