Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Things do not have meaning. We assign meaning to everything.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
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
If women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.
—Aristotle Onassis (1906–75) Argentine-Greek Shipping Magnate
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
All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
There is a purpose to our lives that each day tugs at our sleeve as an annoying distraction.
—Robert Brault
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
Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough.
—Martin Amis (1949–2023) British Novelist, Journalist
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
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 meaning is best known to the speaker.
—French Proverb
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
Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
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
Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
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
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
Return to the root and you will find the meaning.
—Jianzhi Sengcan (d.606 CE) Chinese-Buddhist Monk
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
Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
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
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
I don’t want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1899–1948) American Writer, Artist
Leave a Reply