Quotes About Purpose

Either a universe with order and purpose or a medley thrown together by chance, but that too has order. Or can there be order of a kind in your inner world, but no order in the Whole, especially as all things are distinguished from one another, yet intermingle, and respond to each other?

No one can keep you from living as your nature requires. Nothing can happen to you that is not required by Nature.

When it allows its action and impulse to be without a purpose, to be random and disconnected: even the smallest things ought to be directed toward a goal.

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: "I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?

Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. You

14. You have functioned as a part of something; you will vanish into what produced you. Or be restored, rather. To the logos from which all things spring. By being changed.

To undertake nothing: i. at random or without a purpose; ii. for any reason but the common good.

No pointless actions.

Is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?

Indifference to external events. And a commitment to justice in your own acts. Which means: thought and action resulting in the common good. What you were born to do.

You have seen those things, look now at these: do not trouble yourself, make yourself simple. Does a man do wrong? He does wrong to himself. Has some chance befallen you? It is well; from Universal Nature, from the beginning, all that befalls was determined for you and the thread was spun. The sum of the matter is this: life is short; the present must be turned to profit with reasonableness and right. Be sober without effort.

Use thyself; as often, as thou seest any man do anything, presently (if it be possible) to say unto thyself, What is this man's end in this his action? But begin this course with thyself first of all, and diligently examine thyself concerning whatsoever thou doest.

Thou must also take heed of another kind of wandering, for they are idle in their actions, who toil and labour in this life, and have no certain scope to which to direct all their motions, and desires.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee.

You have to assemble you life yourself - action by action. And be satisfied if each one achieves its goal, as far as it can. No one can keep that from happening.

Similarly, man is born for deeds of kindness; and when he has done a kindly action, or otherwise served the common welfare, he has done what he was made for, and has received his quittance.

There's only one crop to be reaped from your time on earth, and that is a reverential disposition and socially useful actions.

13. You have a mind? —Yes. Well, why not use it? Isn't that all you want—for it to do its job?

Don't waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people— unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You'll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing, and why, and what they're saying, and what they're thinking, and what they're up to, and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from focusing on your own mind.

If it be not fitting, do it not. If it be not true, speak it not. Ever maintain thine own purpose and resolution free from all compulsion and necessity

En primer lugar, nada hagas sin reflexionar ni sin fin alguno, y en segundo, no lleves otro fin sino el bien de la sociedad.

Whatever happens to every man, this is for the interest of the universal:

In the morning purpose, in the evening discuss the manner, what thou hast been this day, in word, work, and thought.

No te distraigan los incidentes exteriores. Desocúpate para aprender algo más de bueno, y cesa de andar girando como una devanadera. Conviene asimismo precaverte de otra clase de extravío. Que desvarían los que, a causa de tantos quehaceres, se hastían de la vida y no tienen blanco alguno al que dirijan todos sus esfuerzos y, en una palabra, sus ideas.