Motivational Quotes

Purpose

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.

- Carlyle, Thomas

Best Quotes about Purpose

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.

What we determine we often break. Purpose is but the slave to memory.

Shakespeare, William

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

Morgan, Arthur E.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Brown, Les

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

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

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

Wizard, Her Majesty's

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

10.

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

Gschwandtner, Gerhard

11.

The purpose of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. [Proverbs 20:5]

Bible

12.

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

13.

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

Tolstoy, Count Leo

14.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

15.

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

Hubbard, L. Ron

16.

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

17.

Purpose is what gives life a meaning.

Parkhurst, Charles H.

18.

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

Seneca

19.

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

20.

What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

21.

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

Picasso, Pablo

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

26.

A pilgrim is a wanderer with purpose.

Pilgrim, Peace

27.

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

Moody, Dwight L.

28.

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

Proverb

29.

There is no road to success but through a clear strong purpose. Nothing can take its place. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of every part.

Munger, Thornton T.

30.

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

31.

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

Ustinov, Peter

32.

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

Diana, Princess of Wales

33.

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

34.

The aims of life are the best defense against death.

Levi, Primo

35.

Carlyle, Thomas

36.

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

Munro, Barry

37.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

38.

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end

Hemingway, Ernest

39.

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

Eliot, George

40.

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

Socrates

41.

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

Thurber, James

42.

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

43.

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

44.

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

Hudgins, Ken

45.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Eliot, George

46.

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

47.

Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.

Allen, James

48.

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

Thoreau, Henry David

49.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

50.

Never be afraid to treat the path alone. Know which is your path and follow it wherever it may lead you; do not feel you have to follow in someone else's footsteps.

Bellin, Gita