The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
—Jack London (1876–1916) American Novelist
I can tell you how to get what you want: You’ve just got to keep a thing in view and go for it and never let your eyes wander to right or left or up or down. And looking back is fatal.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.
—Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American Ecologist, Conservationist
Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
There’s some end at last for the man who follows a path; mere rambling is interminable.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
I care not what your education is, elaborate or nothing, what your mental calibre is, great or small, that man who concentrates all his energies of body, mind and soul in one direction is a tremendous man.
—Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832–1902) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Religious Leader
Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
The thing which sets off the American from all other men, and gives peculiar color not only to the pattern of his daily life but also adds to the play of his inner ideas, is what, for want of a more exact term, may be called social aspiration
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
The grand essentials of happiness in this life are: Something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
—George Washington Burnap (1802–59) American Unitarian Priest
Every man, through fear, mugs his aspirations a dozen times a day.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.
—Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879–1958) American Novelist
Hope is the last thing that dies in man, and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey’s end.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Life means to have something definite to do—a mission to fulfill—and in the measure in which we avoid setting our life to something, we make it empty. Human life, by its very nature, has to be dedicated to something.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
The soul that has no established aim loses itself.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
It is when things go hardest, when life becomes most trying, that there is greatest need for having a fixed goal. When few comforts come from without, it is all the more necessary to have a fount to draw from within.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
The greyhound that starts many hares kills none.
—Spanish Proverb
What most counts is not to live, but to live aright.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Hope is the last thing ever lost.
—Italian Proverb
Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life, I find.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
I believe, with abiding conviction, that this people-nurtured by their deep faith, tutored by their hard lessons, moved by their high aspirations-have the will to meet the trials that these times impose.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
He who begins many things finishes but few.
—Italian Proverb