Quotes About Purpose

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause. The mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that is wants to live humbly for one.

We all make mistakes, but intelligence enables us to do it on purpose.

Never mind your happiness; do your duty.

Giacché ci troviamo al mondo senza che nessuno ce lo abbia chiesto, tanto vale provare a realizzare qualcosa.

Das, dachte er, ist es. Leben müssen, obgleich alles vorbei ist. Disponieren, organisieren: jeden Tag, jede Stunde und Minute. Als hätte es noch Sinn

I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.

TO BE HAPPY, BE VIRTUOUS. THERE ARE ONLY TWO REASONS TO EVER DO ANYTHING; TO BE HAPPY, AND TO HELP OTHER PEOPLE BE HAPPY. ALL VIRTUE LIES IN THE SECOND HALF OF THAT, IN WORKING FOR OTHERS, IN PROTECTING THE WEAK FROM THE STRONG.

If a man cannot invest his life, or any part of it, with meaning, all he has left are distractions from meaninglessness, although few of us acknowledge them as such.

life's meaning is not something to look for but something to create myself

The idea that life's meaning is not something to look for but something to create myself feels right to me. In fact, it seems absolutely essential.

The meaning of life is not something we look for, it is something we create. And by contemplating suicide, we can be fully present at our own creation.

To feel pleasure in any act or activity, you have to pursue some end other than pleasure.

If all you seek from something is pleasure, you'll never find it. All you will feel is noia [existential boredom], often disgust. To feel pleasure in any act or activity, you have to pursue some end other than pleasure.

The unexamined life is surely worth living, but is the unlived life worth examining?" —ADAM PHILLIPS, BRITISH PSYCHOANALYST AND PHILOSOPHER (1954–), FREUDIAN EXISTENTIALIST

First, we exist, and next, we create ourselves.

Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life." —MARCUS AURELIUS, ROMAN EMPEROR AND PHILOSOPHER (AD 121–180), STOIC

With nothing meaningful in life, nothing is interesting. Enter boredom. A bored man even longs for longing. He has time to fill, but there is nothing compelling to do.

This, in the end, is the prime purpose of a philosophy: to give us lucid ways to think about the world and how to live in it.

The meaning of life is not something we look for, it is something we create.

When all is said and done, this Existentialist precept resonates with me more than any other philosophy of life I know. The idea that life's meaning is not something to look for but something to create myself feels right to me. In fact, it seems absolutely essential.

Pay and profit tell you that you are supplying a need and filling other people's wants. They are not the motivation for your work, they are the validation of your work.

I think it is much better not to have a goal, but rather to have a path. I think it is much better not to have a goal, but rather to have a path. Taking the path is very vulnerable and threatened by being pulled to the left or to the right, but if you stay on this thin and narrow, straight path, something of an adventure, something of meaning will happen to you

We cannot do without reality and we cannot do without illusion. Each serves a purpose, each imposes a limit on the influence of the other, and our experience of the world is the artful compromise that these tough competitors negotiate.