Motivational Quotes

Purpose

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

- Halas, George

Best Quotes about Purpose

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

Brown, Les

Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes; lesser ones exist on wishes and inclinations.

Hildebrand, Kenneth

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

Everything happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves you.

Robbins, Anthony

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

Socrates

The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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

Buscaglia, Leo

Give me a man who says, This one thing I do, and not, These fifty things, I dabble in.

Moody, Dwight L.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

11.

The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.

Cousins, Norman

12.

What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

13.

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

Munro, Barry

14.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

15.

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

16.

It is essential that we enable young people to see themselves as participants in one of the most exciting eras in history, and to have a sense of purpose in relation to it.

Rockefeller, Nelson

17.

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

18.

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

19.

Lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have.

Morgan, Arthur E.

20.

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.

21.

The purpose of man is in action not thought.

Carlyle, Thomas

22.

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

23.

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

Hudgins, Ken

24.

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

25.

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

26.

Many men go fishing their entire lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.

Thoreau, Henry David

27.

How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become -- to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

28.

Multitudes of people, drifting aimlessly to and fro without a set purpose, deny themselves such fulfillment of their capacities, and the satisfying happiness which attends it. They are not wicked, they are only shallow. They are not mean or vicious; they simply are empty -- shake them and they would rattle like gourds. They lack range, depth, and conviction. Without purpose their lives ultimately wander into the morass of dissatisfaction. As we harness our abilities to a steady purpose and undertake the long pull toward its accomplishment, rich compensations reward us. A sense of purpose simplifies life and therefore concentrates our abilities; and concentration adds power.

Hildebrand, Kenneth

29.

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

30.

The secret to success is constancy to purpose.

Disraeli, Benjamin

31.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

32.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

33.

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

Seneca

34.

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

35.

You have to know what is right for you and go after it regardless of what others say.

Brown, Les

36.

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

37.

I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose...

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

38.

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

Patanjali

39.

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

40.

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

41.

The only way you can be successful on a post or win at it is to be at cause over it.

Hubbard, L. Ron

42.

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

43.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Eliot, George

44.

Winners are people with definite purpose in life.

Waitley, Denis

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Ustinov, Peter

49.

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

50.

Pep without purpose is piffle.