Quotes About Purpose

Whatever his mood—whether it was gay and breezy, or dark with rage—he had one pervading characteristic: he was purposeful.

And in the space of a few short hours, life had been reduced from a highly complex existence, with a thousand petty problems, to one of the barest simplicity in which only one real task remained—the achievement of the goal.

So many worlds, so much to do,So little done, such things to be.

Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.

Death closes all: but something ere the end,Some work of noble note, may yet be done,Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.

And out of darkness came the hands that reach thro' nature, moulding men.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,To rust unburnished, not to shine in use,As though to breathe were life!

Ah, whyShould life all labor be?

Ours not to reason why Ours but to do and die.

Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of human life is to grasp as much as we can out of the infinitude.

Faraday was asked: "What is the use of this discovery?" He answered: "What is the use of a child - it grows to be a man.

But the purpose of philosophy is to rationalize mysticism: not by explaining it away, but by the introduction of novel verbal characterizations, rationally coordinated.

Realization is… in itself the attainment of value

It does not emphasize the ruling Caesar, or the ruthless moralist, or the unmoved mover. It dwells upon the tender elements in the world, which slowly and in quietness operates by love; and it finds purpose in the present immediacy of a kingdom not of this world. Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved; also it is a little oblivious as to morals. It does not look to the future; for it finds its own reward in the immediate present

No life that breathes with human breath Has ever truly longed for death.

Perform your long and heavy task with energy, treading the path to which Fate has been pleased to call you.

To call away someone," he went on in the same thrilling voice, "someone who is not quite ready to come, but who is needed elsewhere for a worthier purpose.

Save his own soul's light overhead, None leads him, and none ever led, Across birth's hidden harbour-bar, Past youth where shoreward shallows are, Through age that drives on toward the red Vast void of sunset hailed from far, To the equal waters of the dead; Save his own soul he hath no star, And sinks, except his own soul guide, Helmless in middle turn of tide.

Blessed is the man who always kept the life after death in his view, who remembered the Day of Judgment through all his deeds, who led a contented life and who was happy with the lot that God had destined for him.

No one is moved to act, or resolves to speak a single word, who does not hope by means of this action or word to release anxiety from his spirit.

Believe me. Everything is meant.

We need both luck and justice to get to live the life we're meant for, she says.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give values to survival.

How old, how commonplace To look upon the face Of your first-born, and glory in your lot. To look upon his face And understand your place Among the unknown dead in churchyards lying, To see the reason why You lived and why you die-- Even to find a certain grace in dying.