A Creator is vision-focused and passion-motivated. To really live into your Creator self, you are called to do the inner work necessary to find your own sense of purpose—whatever touches your heart and holds meaning for you.
—David Emerald
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Everything happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves you.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
One person caring about another represents life’s greatest value.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
The dreamers are the saviors of the world.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
If Heaven made him—earth can find some use for him.
—Chinese Proverb
A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.
—Amy Carmichael (1867–1951) British Protestant Missionary
Every man is occasionally visited by the suspicion that the planet on which he is riding is not really going anywhere; that the Force which controls its measured eccentricities hasn’t got anything special in mind. If he broods on this somber theme long enough he gets the doleful idea that the laughing children on a merry-go-round or the thin, fine hands of a lady’s watch are revolving more purposely than he is.
—James Thurber
A philosophy of life: I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
You can come to understand your purpose in life by slowing down and feeling your heart’s desires.
—Marcia Wieder
Every why has a wherefore.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
—Viktor Frankl (1905–97) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
When you can live forever what do you live for?
—Stephenie Meyer (b.1973) American Novelist
Decide upon your major definite purpose in life and then organize all your activities around it.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
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
Things do not have meaning. We assign meaning to everything.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Unlikely accomplishments are borne out of single-minded purposefulness. Future superstars don’t get there by keeping part of their heart in reserve.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
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
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Your purpose is to act on the resources God gives you. If God gives you a bucket of fish, you have to distribute those fish. If you don’t, they’re going to rot, attract a bunch of flies, and start stinking up your soul.
—Russell Simmons (b.1957) American Music Promoter
There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
If you don’t stand up for something, you may fall for anything.
—Les Brown
Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills—against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. ‘Give me a place to stand,’ said Archimedes, ‘and I will move the world.’ These men moved the world, and so can we all.
—Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68) American Politician, Civil Rights Activist
What is the quality of your intent?
—Thurgood Marshall (1908–93) American Jurist
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
I live for my sons. I would be lost without them.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
There is only one purpose for all of life, and that is for you and all that lives to experience fullest glory…everything else you say, think, or do is attendant to that function. There is nothing else for your soul to do, and nothing else your soul wants to do.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
If we don’t stand for something, we may fall for anything.
—Unknown
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 we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Fear God and work hard.
—David Livingstone (1813–73) Scottish Missionary, Explorer
Only the consciousness of a purpose that is mightier than any man and worthy of all men can fortify and inspirit and compose the souls of men.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.
—Buddhist Teaching
Give a man health and a course to steer, and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
We know there is intention and purpose in the universe, because there is intention and purpose in us.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.
—Viktor Frankl (1905–97) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
I learned the most important lesson of my life: that the extraordinary is not the birthright of a chosen and privileged few, but of all people, even the humblest. That is my one certainty: we are all the manifestation of the divinity of God.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat