Quotes About Meaning

El deseo de significado. Victor Frankl llevaba razón cuando cuestionó las teorías de Sigmund Freud al aventurar que el principal deseo del hombre no es encontrar placer sino sentido.

I wondered whether a person could plan a story for his life and live it intentionally.

our customers don't care. Why? Because that information isn't helping them eat, drink, find a mate, fall in love, build a tribe, experience a deeper sense of meaning, or stockpile weapons in case barbarians start coming over the hill behind our cul-de-sac.

If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.

We think stories are about getting money and security, but the truth is, it all comes down to relationships.

I spent years studying theology and philosophy. They were good years, but I was mistaken to believe that the study of meaning would give me a sense of meaning. Studying love does not cause you to fall in love. Falling in love happens under a certain set of circumstances.

what our stories are about matters, not just for us but for the world.

And I found myself wanting even better stories. And that's the thing you'll realize when you organize your life into the structure of story.

Have a project to work on, some reason to get out of bed in the morning and preferably something that serves other people. 2. Have a redemptive perspective on life's challenges. That is, when something difficult happens, recognize the ways that difficulty also serves you. 3. Share your life with a person or people who love you unconditionally.

The philosophical problem in a story is about something even larger than the story itself. It's about the question why. Why does this story matter in the overall epic of humanity?

finished. If you aren't telling a good story, nobody thinks you died too soon; they just think you died. But my uncle died too soon.

place. I wondered whether a person could plan a story for his life and live it intentionally.

Why? Because story is a trustworthy guide. And if there are not stakes in a story, there is no story.

And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time. The more practice stories I lived, the more I wanted an epic to climb inside of and see through till its end.

I know a little of why there is blood in my body, pumping life into my limbs and thought into my brain. I am wanted by God.

we aren't sure what we want in life, there is no story question in our lives either. And if there is no story question inviting us to take action, we will lose interest in our own lives.

in his book Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl argued convincingly that man was actually most tempted to distract himself with pleasure when his life was void of meaning.

I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.

What if part of God's message to the world was you, the true and real you?

All relationships are teleological.

What if part of God's message to the world was you? The true and real you?

Frankl went on to say it wasn't pleasure mankind was looking for, that men only sought pleasure when they couldn't find meaning. If a man has no sense of meaning, Frankl argued, he will numb himself with pleasure.

His prescription to experience a deep sense of meaning, then, was remarkably pragmatic. He had three recommendations: 1. Have a project to work on, some reason to get out of bed in the morning and preferably something that serves other people. 2. Have a redemptive perspective on life's challenges. That is, when something difficult happens, recognize the ways that difficulty also serves you. 3. Share your life with a person or people who love you unconditionally.

The thing about trying to remember your life is it makes you wonder what any of it means. You get the feeling life means something, but you're not sure what. Life has a peculiar feel when you look back on it that it doesn't have when you're actually living it.