Motivational Quotes

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

Best Quotes about Purpose

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

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

Sharpman, Al

A purpose you impart is no longer your own.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

It is your work in life that is your ultimate seduction.

Picasso, Pablo

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

Eliot, George

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

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

You can come to understand your purpose in life by slowing down and feeling your heart's desires.

Wieder, Marcia

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

10.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

11.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Eliot, George

12.

Man becomes greater in proportion to knowing himself and his faculties. Let him become conscious of what he is and he will soon also learn what he should be.

Schelling, Felix E.

13.

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

14.

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

Halas, George

15.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

16.

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

Morgan, Arthur E.

17.

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

Ustinov, Peter

18.

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

19.

Purpose is what gives life a meaning.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

20.

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

21.

The aims of life are the best defense against death.

Levi, Primo

22.

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

Socrates

23.

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

Craig Mary

24.

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

25.

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

Robbins, Anthony

26.

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

Martyn, Henry

27.

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

Buddha

28.

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

Thurber, James

29.

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

30.

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

Proverb

31.

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

32.

You, betrayed by time and space, Seek and find your proper place.

Wizard, Her Majesty's

33.

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

Gschwandtner, Gerhard

34.

Winners are people with definite purpose in life.

Waitley, Denis

35.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

36.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

37.

The secret to success is constancy to purpose.

Disraeli, Benjamin

38.

Are we interested in sight seeing or soul saving?

39.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

40.

There is no better test of a man's work than time, which also reveals the thoughts which lay hidden in his breast.

Simonides

41.

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

42.

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right.

Schulz, Charles M.

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

46.

To be a Sufi is to cease from taking trouble; and there is no greater trouble for thee than thine own self, for when thou art occupied with thyself, thou remainest away from God.

Sa'id, Abu

47.

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

48.

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

Brooks, Garth

49.

I live for my sons. I would be lost without them.

Diana, Princess of Wales

50.

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