Quotes About Purpose

In these last minutes, what did he most want to hear—that he'd been seen and heard in this world? That he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do? That he'd loved and been loved?

May Sarton novel, The Reckoning, Ella writes to her friend Laura, "Do you suppose growing up always means diluting [our] fierce purpose for the sake of others?"4

Why would God plant such deep yearnings in us . . . if they only come to nothing?

Could we know the ways of God or not? Did he possess an intention for us, his people, as our religion believed, or was it up to us to invent meaning for ourselves? Perhaps nothing was as I'd thought.

And despite all that Jesus had just said, all his prevarication and provisos, the most curious feeling came over me, that I was always meant to arrive at this moment.

In these last minutes, what did he most want to hear-that he'd been seen and heard in this world? That he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do? That he'd loved and been loved?

I came to believe that my true identity goes beyond the outer roles I play. It transcends the ego. I came to understand that there is an Authentic 'I' within - an 'I am', or divine spark within the soul.

and I'd be overcome by the little river of sparks that seemed to run beneath all that, the blood/sap/wine, aliveness, whatever it was. It had made me feel bereft over the immensity of the world, the extraordinary things people did with their lives- though, really, I didn't want to do any of those particular things. I didn't know then what I wanted, but the ache for it was palpable.

Your vision means what you want it to mean. It will mean what you make it to mean

We're all yearning for a wedge of sky, aren't we? I suspect God plants these yearnings in us so we'll at least try and change the course of things. We must try, that's all.

It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results.

The Way means inducing the people to have the same aim as the leadership

You will not succeed unless your men have tenacity and unity of purpose, and above all, a spirit of sympathetic cooperation.

El éxito en la guerra se alcanza cuidando de adaptarse permanentemente al propósito del enemigo.

A wise warrior never gets lost when he goes; he's never in confusion, when acting.

I don't want to die as long as I can work; the minute I can not, I want to go.

This life, this everyday existence, is the one gift we're given. To throw it away, to want to be dead, to me that's the sin.

My existence is the only gift I have left to give, but it will have to do.

but it finally occurred to me that the time was going to pass anyway, I might as well try to have something to show for it

Geist und Tat. Spirit and Action.

The first temperance groups were secular and calm. Their purpose was to help men hang on to their paychecks and their dignity. But America is not a calm nation.

how does my worthless life get lived without me?

By the next war, the message will have got through. There will never be another war. There will always be wars. Men couldn't be so stupid, John! After all this? Isn't the only real purpose of our being here to teach them that lesson - how bloody useless and pointless the whole thing is? Men are naturally stupid and they do not learn from experience.

It might be impossible to make sense of life: life was not worth living until the attempt to do so had been made." CHARLES E. RAVEN