Purpose Quotes

The history of the human race, viewed as a whole may be regarded as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to bring about a political constitution, internally, and for this purpose, also externally perfect, as the only state in which all the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully developed.

Immanuel Kant

The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.

Don Barthelme

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

Aristotle

The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about others things.

Bertrand Russell

To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.

Cynthia Ozick, O Magazine, September 2002

I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the government are directed tot he purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

William Henry Harrison, Speech, October 1, 1840

There is nothing sadder in this world than the waste of human potential. The purpose of evolution is to raise us out of the mud, not have us grovelling in it.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Cicely, 1992

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.

Washington Irving

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.

Tyron Edwards

As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose.

Bhagavad Gita

All of us are working together for the same end; some of us knowingly and purposefully, others unconsciously.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations? Book Seven

Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes.

Kenneth Hildebrand

Unless a life is activated by sustained purpose it can become a depressingly haphazard affair.

Richard Guggenheime

The primary purpose of education is not to teach you to earn your bread, but to make every mouthful sweeter.

James R. Angell

Our religious faith gives us the answer to the false beliefs of Communism... I have the feeling that God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose.

President Harry Truman, Public Papers of the President of the United States: Harry S. Truman - 1951 U. S. Gov. 1966 pp548 - 549

Who knows why we live, and struggle, and die... Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom.

Alan Stewart Paton

Every path serves a purpose.

Gene Olive

This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on.

Oswald Spengle

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.

Elisabeth Kubler - Ross

Education, which was at first made universal in order that all might be able to read and write, has been found capable of serving quite other purposes. By instilling nonsense it unifies populations and generates collective enthusiasm.

Bertrand Russell

The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by a word and a comma.

Larry Wall

Every man serves a useful purpose: A miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor.

Laurence J. Pete

I am often troubled as I try hard here to create a new sense of common purpose... that sometimes we forget that we are all in this because we are seeking a good that helps all Americans.

William Jefferson Clinton

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is merely to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. I think it is above all to matter, to count, to stand for something. To have it make some difference that you lived at all.

Leo Rosten

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

The 14th. Dalai Lama

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice", Act 1 scene 3

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

Charles Robert Darwin

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

Ayn Rand

Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill - Designed for the purpose.

Winston Churchill

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 Kelle

Commitment means that it is possible for a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies.

Howard Thurman