Universal Purpose Quotes
“The purpose of creation is beauty. Nature in all its various aspects develops towards beauty, and therefore it is plain that the purpose of life is to evolve towards beauty.” Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan: the Art of Personality
“The goal of your life is living in agreement with nature.” Zeno, Diogenes Laertius, book 3
“The purpose of life on earth is that the soul should grow– So grow! By doing what is right.” Zelda Fitzgerald, letter to her husband (1944)
“Every living thing strives for wholeness.” Carl Jung, “On the Nature of Dreams” (1945)
“It’s love that makes the world go round!” W.S. Gilbert., Iolanthe
“For beauty being the best of all we know, Sums up the unsearchable and secret aims of nature.” Robert Bridges, The Growth of Love
“I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research.” Alfred Einstein
“Man lives consciously for himself but unconsciously he serves as an instrument for the accomplishment of historical and social ends.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1863-1869)
“There is no meaning in life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers, by living productively…. Only constant vigilance, activity, and effort can keep us from failing in the one task that matters– the full development of our powers within the limitations set by the laws of our existence.” Erich Fromm, Man for Himself: an inquiry into the psychology of ethics (1947)
Spiritual Purpose Quotes
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.” Seneca
“Your true nature is something never lost to you even in moments of delusion, nor is it gained at the moment of Enlightenment.” Huang-Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang-Po
“Man is the medium between spirit and matter; he is between the visible and the invisible world. He sums them up in his person, as in a universal center.” Adrien-Emmanuel Roquette
“To bring the heart into tune with God is better than audible prayer.” Marina de Guevara, Letters (16th century)
“You get your intuituion back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind.” Anne Lamont, Bird by Bird: some instructions on writing and life (1995)
“The Almighty has his own purposes.” Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
“The religion of Christ is not aspirin to deaden the pain of living, it is not a discussion group, nor a miraculous medal nor a piety, nor bingo for God. Not anything less than a joyous adventure of being Christ in a world still skeptical of Him.” John Managhan, “Lenten Message,” New York Journal-American, 2/16/1961
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty;
Why so important, my heart?
He who watches over the birds, beasts and insects,
He who cared for you whilst you were yet in your mother’s womb,
Shall he not care for you now that you have come forth?
O my heart, how could you turn from the smile of your Lord and wander so far from Him?
You have left your beloved and are thinking of others:
and this is why all your work is in vain.” Kabir, One Hundred Poems of Kabir
“Every day, people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” Lenny Bruce, The Essential Lenny Bruce
“Some church members will have to cease thinking of the Church as a kind of memorial association for a deceased clergyman called Christ.” Stephen Bayne, in New York Herald Tribune 8/19/1963
Intention: Doing Things on Purpose
“Let your aim be the good of all.” Bhagavad Gita 3.20 (6th Century B.C.)
“Men never do evil do completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal, Pensees
“Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.” Don Marquis
“Every communication must comply with certain essential requirements and these are sincerity, honesty, and truthfulness. Good intentions and a clear conscience do not thereby make a communication sound and reliable. A communication must state the truth. It must accurately reflect the situation with all its implications. The moral worth and validity of any communication do not lie solely in its theme or intellectual content. The way in which it is presented, the way in which it is spoken and treated and even the audience for which it is designed—all these factors must be taken into account.” Pope Paul VI
“Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it… it aches!” Bernard Levin, The Times (London), 1968
“Any damned fool can write a plan. It’s the execution that gets you all screwed up.” James F. Hollingsworth
Callings
“Higher aims are in themselves more valuable, even if unfulfilled, than lower ones quite attained.” Goethe, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
“You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.” Publius Syrus
“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Greatness,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)
“A human life is like a single letter in the alphabet. It can be meaningless. Or it can be part of a great meaning.” National Planning Committee of Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in an essay taken out as ad in New York newspapers 9/5/1956
“Until he has been part of a cause larger than himself, no man is truly whole.” Richard M. Nixon, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969
