Quotes About Meaning

Boredom is a sentiment of disconnectedness. While we are busy with many things, we wonder if what we do makes any real difference. Life presents itself as a random and unconnected series of activities and events over which we have little or no control. To be bored, therefore, does not mean that we have nothing to do, but that we question the value of the things we are so busy doing. The great paradox of our time is that many of us are busy and bored at the same time.

Why is it, that many parties and friendly get-togethers leave us so empty and sad?

Our lives can indeed be seen as a process of becoming familiar with death, as a school in the art of dying. I do not mean this in a morbid way. On the contrary, when we see life constantly relativized by death, we can enjoy it for what it is: a free gift.

Truth does not mean an idea, concept, or doctrine, but the true relationship.

Whatever happens to me in life, I must believe that somewhere, In the mess or madness of it all, There is a sacred potential—

Prayer has meaning only if it is necessary and indispensable. Prayer is prayer only when we can say that without it, we cannot live.

If you see in me more than my function or job, then I can slowly communicate to you on a deeper level. I can become a person to you.

What counts in your life and mine is not successes but fruits. The fruits of our life are born often in our pain and in our vulnerability and in our losses.

Tatsächlich hat der arbeitende Mensch heute nicht mehr die Muße, sein Leben Tag für Tag wirklich sinnvoll zu gestalten.Wahrhaft menschliche Beziehungen zu seinen Mitmenschen kann er sich nicht leisten; es würde den Marktwert seiner Arbeit herabsetzen. Es fehlt ihm an Zeit, etwas anderes zu sein als eine Maschine.

All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.

The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings.

The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.

Some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after.

In my opinion, the sun was made to light worthier toil than this.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

It's not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?

The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times; and we must laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of what wisdom and valor and generosity we have.

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

I wish to forget, a considerable part of every day, all mean, narrow, trivial men (and this requires usually to forego and forget all personal relations so long), and therefore I come out to these solitudes, where the problem of existence is simplified. I enter some glade in the woods, perchance, where a few weeds and dry leaves alone lift themselves above the surface of the snow, and it is as if I had come to an open window. I see out and around myself.

It is not enought to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure.

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.

My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not to live cheaply nor to live dearly there but to transact some private business, with the fewest obstacles… It's a good place for business... it offers advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge.