Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
Things do not have meaning. We assign meaning to everything.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
When you can live forever what do you live for?
—Stephenie Meyer (b.1973) American Novelist
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough.
—Martin Amis (b.1949) British Novelist, Journalist
In speaking, it is best to be clear and say just enough to convey the meaning.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it’s as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.
—Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English Fantasy Writer
Man is a being in search of meaning.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Excessive familiarity breeds contempt. Repeated visits (to anyone) result in disrespect. For instance, on the Malaya mountains (rich in sandalwood trees), the tribal housewife uses sandalwood as a fuel.
—Subhashita Manjari Sanskrit Anthology of Proverbs
I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?
—Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Civil Regrets Advocate, Humanitarian, Lawyer
I don’t want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1899–1948) American Writer, Artist
God created a number of possibilities in case some of his prototypes failed—that is the meaning of evolution.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
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
Our senses are indeed our doors and windows on this world, in a very real sense the key to the unlocking of meaning and the wellspring of creativity.
—Jean Houston (b.1937) American New Thought Author, Speaker
If women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.
—Aristotle Onassis (1906–75) Argentine-Greek Shipping Magnate
Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
Life has a meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
One good punch on your enemy’s nose, gives more pleasure than hearing well-meaning advice from your elders.
—Tibetan Proverb
All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute… that gives meaning to our lives.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
There is a purpose to our lives that each day tugs at our sleeve as an annoying distraction.
—Robert Brault
It is the experience of living that is important, not searching for meaning. We bring meaning by how we love the world.
—Bernie S. Siegel (b.1932) American Physician, Writer
There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
If liberty has any meaning it means freedom to improve.
—Philip Wylie (1902–71) American Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Screenwriter
You see, it’s never the environment; it’s never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events—how we interpret them—that shapes who we are today and who we’ll become tomorrow.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Everything happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves you.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
There is no phrase that doesn’t have a double meaning.
—African Proverb
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
If God exists and we are made in his image we can have real meaning, and we can have real knowledge through what he has communicated to us.
—Francis Schaeffer (1912–84) American Presbyterian Religious Leader, Theologian, Philosopher
It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how things are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
You must go after your wish. As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach
There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by unfolding of his powers.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
For a large class of cases—though not for all—in which we employ the word “meaning” it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
To know is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
The meaning is best known to the speaker.
—French Proverb
Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak..
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher