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Quotations about Purpose



Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend... ~Walter Savage Landor


The purpose of life is a life of purpose. ~Robert Byrne, The Third — and Possibly the Best — 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1986


He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. ~Friedrich Nietzsche


Purpose is the key-stone in the temple of achievement. It binds and holds together in a complete whole that which would otherwise lie scattered and useless. ~James Allen, "The Power of Purpose," The Mastery of Destiny, 1909


Pep without purpose is piffle. ~Anonymous, c.1919   ["And purpose sans pep near as bad," came the anonymous reply. –tg]


You can accept reality, or you can persist in your purpose until reality accepts you. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


I should make each citizen appear before a Board once in seven years and defend his claim to live. ~Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)


A useless life is but an early death... ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Anna Swanwick


It is not life to whirl and twirl
In busy nothings round,
While thought and purpose empty go
And truth is never found...
~Arad Joy Sebring, "What Is Life?," Girdle of Gladness, 1905


There is a purpose to our lives that each day tugs at our sleeve as an annoying distraction. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind. ~Seneca, translated by Richard M. Gummere


Don't trade your life for just an empty hourglass. ~Terri Guillemets


What can resist an unshakeable purpose? What can stand against it or turn it aside? Inert matter yields to a living force, and circumstance succumbs to the power of purpose. ~James Allen, "The Power of Purpose," The Mastery of Destiny, 1909


Never ask, "What reason do I have to be happy?" Instead ask, "To what purpose can I attach my happiness?" ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Truly, I am as a grain of sand in the desert,
      Infinitesimal, so very small!
      And, yet, I serve a purpose in this wondrous world,
      As do the trees, so stately and so tall.
I'm just a tiny atom that God has placed down here—
      I do not even know the reason why!
      But I'm sure that He, with wisdom, has evolved a plan
      To fit me in His pattern ere I die.
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "As a Grain of Sand," 1940s


This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. ~Bernard Shaw, Epistle Dedicatory to Arthur Bingham Walkley, Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy, 1903


I love the valiant; but it is not enough to wield a broadsword, one must also know against whom. ~Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)


I am extraordinarily sensitive to all kinds of noise; yet it entirely loses its objective character as soon as it is associated with some reasonable purpose. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799), "The Character of a Person of my Acquaintance"  [Lichtenberg's unfinished "autopsychography" (Norman Alliston, 1908). —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]


If you don't decide what your life is about, it defaults to what you spend your days doing. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com



William Shakespeare — Life Coach.


Below is my experiment carving Shakespeare's plays into little phrases to reveal his inner motivational speaker on the topic of purpose. —tg


I am constant to my purposes... ~William Shakespeare, Hamlet


I wish no better
Than have him hold that purpose and to put it
In execution.
~William Shakespeare, Coriolanus


Nay, nay, to the purpose. ~William Shakespeare, Cymbeline


But to the purpose, and so to the venture. ~William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II


If wishes would prevail with me,
My purpose should not fail with me...
~William Shakespeare, Henry V


[L]end me wings to... my purpose... ~William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night


The heavens give safety to your purposes! ~William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure


Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do't...
Be a soldier to thy purpose.
~William Shakespeare, Pericles


Make your own purpose... ~William Shakespeare, King Lear


Believe me, on mine honour,
My words express my purpose.
~William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure


...here is the heart of my purpose... ~William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor


...God, for some strong purpose, steel'd
The hearts of men...
~William Shakespeare, Richard II


...if thou hast that in thee indeed, which I
have greater reason to believe now than ever, I mean
purpose, courage and valour, this night show it...
~William Shakespeare, Othello


Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolved to effect.
~William Shakespeare, Tempest


It is the purpose that makes strong the vow... ~William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida





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