Quotes About Purpose

The question, O me! so sad, recurring - What good amid these, O me, O life? That you are here - that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Do you guess I have some intricate purpose? Well I have, for the Fourth-month showers have, and the mica on the side of a rock has. Do you take it I would astonish? Does the daylight astonish? does the early redstart twittering through the woods? Do I astonish more than they? This hour I tell things in confidence, I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.

he cleanest expression is that which finds no sphere worthy of itself and makes one

The cleanest expression is that which finds no sphere worthy of itself, and makes one.

Say on, sayers! sing on, singers! Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth! Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost, It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use, When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall appear.

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

If America is not for freedom I do not see what it is for.

America has its purpose: it must serve that purpose to the end: I look upon the future as certain: our people will in the end read all these lessons right: America will stand opposed to everything which means restriction--stand against all policies of exclusion: accept Irish, Chinese--knowing it must not question the logic of its hospitality.

Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited toward annihilation?

If I'm going to have a fight I got to see the win in it so I'll know what I'm fighting for.

To come right down to it, if I take my kind of things in which I believe, then add to that the kind of temperament that I have to whatever I believe in-- these are ingredients which make it just about impossible for me to die of old age. -- The autobiography of Malcom X

To come right down to it, if I take the kind of things in which I believe, then add to that the kind of temperament that I have, plus the one hundred percent dedication I have to whatever I believe in--these are ingredients which make it just about impossible for me to die of old age. -- The autobiography of Malcom X

i had no idea what i wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.

We spoke about furniture in theory for eight years," recalled Powell. "We spent a lot of time asking ourselves, 'What is the purpose of a sofa?'

He emphasized that you should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.

Despite the pecuniary spirit of Poor Richard's sayings and the penny-saving reputation they later earned Franklin, he did not have the soul of an acquisitive capitalist. "I would rather have it said," he wrote his mother, 'He lived usefully,' than, 'He died rich.' 

Human ingenuity," wrote Leonardo da Vinci, whose Vitruvian Man became the ultimate symbol of the intersection of art and science, "will never devise any inventions more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than Nature does.

The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter.

The knack is to get people to follow you, even to places they may not think they can go, by motivating them to share your sense of mission.

Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?

If the object were to have feelings, these would be based on its desire to fulfill its essence. The purpose of a glass, for example, is to hold water; if it had feelings, it would be happy when full and sad when empty. The essence of a computer screen is to interface with a human. The essence of a unicycle is to be ridden in a circus. As for toys, their purpose is to be played with by kids, and thus their existential fear is of being discarded or upstaged by newer toys.

The body exists to serve the spirit

una vida bien empleada trae una muerte feliz.»

Jobs thought of himself as an artist, and he encouraged the design team to think of ourselves that way too," said Hertzfeld. "The goal was never to beat the competition, or to make a lot of money. It was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater.