Quotes About Meaning

Southerners could not throw off the Constitution and at the same time invoke it to protect slavery.

The meaning of man's life, as we have seen, is not measured by what he has, but by what he is. No matter how many possessions we have amassed, how much wealth we have accrued, how respected and secure our position is in society, how numerous the pieces of information we have accumulated, in moments of lucidity we may still abruptly perceive the dreadful futility of it all, the overwhelming emptiness and pointlessness of such a life.

He returned to the empty space above the pharmacy and continued his practice of the "empty hand", kara-te, whose root is the same as kara-oke, "empty orchestra", the sing-along entertainment machine in bars and homes, but whose meaning is infinitely more profound.

Kanal' means 'sewer' as well as 'channel'. 'Kanakafü' has echoes of 'Kacke', a baby word for faeces.

When we choose to love the work we do, we can catch our limit of happiness, meaning, and fulfillment every day.

second does. But it is also necessary to distinguish Shannon information from information that performs a function or conveys a meaning. We must distinguish sequences of characters that are (a) merely improbable from sequences that are (b) improbable and also specifically arranged so as to perform a function. That is, we must distinguish information-carrying capacity from functional information. So

She was looking at me as if I was a painting too, to be examined for symbols and meaning, and she couldn't decide in the end if I really was just a mass of pointless daubs

The mantra becomes one's staff of life," he wrote, "and carries one through every ordeal Ã¢â'¬Â¦ Each repetition Ã¢â'¬Â¦ has a new meaning, each repetition carries you nearer and nearer to God.

Intensive practice provided Beethoven with the tools to symbolically and energetically transform his experience. It gave him an increasing experience of self-efficacy and self-esteem, and provided him with an experience of fun. Finally, it came to provide him with a profound sense of purpose, accomplishment, and meaning. It turns out that these qualities of dharma can rescue even a life in peril.

Andrew Motion. Keats. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2001

My life does not belong to me." Chardin would have said, "My life belongs to God." Katherine found it closer to the truth to say, "My life belongs to the world.

Marion's view allowed her experience with cancer to be full of meaning, to be replete with possibility, and it enabled Death to bring her more deeply into Life. She got the initiation.

[The key to] life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

A Man Said to the Universe A man said to the universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.

A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.

Jim Morrison: I've always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos—especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom. External revolt is a way to bring about internal freedom. Rather than starting inside, I start outside—reach the mental through the physical.

If he could not find beauty, nothing else would be worth finding.

A work of art gives testimony to what it is to be a human being. It bears witness, it extracts meaning. A work of art is also the clearest nonphysical way that emotions is communicated from one human being to another. The emotion isn't referred to; it is re-created. The emotion shows us that our most private feelings are in fact shared feelings. And this offer us some relief from our existential isolation. (p: 10)

There is no life which does not possess its own importance, no life which may not be touched by greatness at any time -- Yes, be touched by greatness and have a hand in it. (from The Mirror of Her Dreams)

He held her like a new woman and what she felt felt almost as good as love had, and each of them called it love because precision didn't matter anymore.

It's now very common to hear people say, "I'm rather offended by that", as if that gives them certain rights. It's no more than a whine. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. "I'm offended by that." Well, so fucking what?

It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what." [ I saw hate in a graveyard -- Stephen Fry , The Guardian, 5 June 2005]

The essence of the hero's journey is: How do you live a meaningful life? What is the deepest life you are called to? How can you respond to that call?

Isn't that what fairy tales are, anyway? What we tell ourselves about ourselves, just in an indirect way, with elves and magic and monsters to make it all safe?