Purpose Proverbs

Sayings about Purpose

Accomplishment of purpose is better than making a profit. ~Nigerian Proverbs

Speak little and to the purpose. ~ Traditional Proverb

Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose. ~Latin Proverbs

People blame themselves for the purpose of being praised. ~ Traditional Proverb

Battle doesn’t need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. ~ Traditional Proverb

If Heaven made him — earth can find some use for him. ~Chinese Proverbs

Begin each day as if it were on purpose. ~ Saying

Quotations about Purpose

The purpose of life is not to be happy–but to matter. ~ Leo Rosten

Having purpose and vision during retirement is one of the most important determinants of mental, social, spiritual, and physical well-being in later life. ~ Harold G. Koenig

I would rather work with five people who really believe in what they are doing rather than five hundred who can’t see the point. ~ Patrick Dixon

What we must try to be, of course, is ourselves and wholeheartedly. We must find out what we really are and what we really want. ~ Nelson Boswell

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

The purpose of life is a life of purpose. ~ Robert Byrne

I just wake up and say, “You’re a bum, go do something worthwhile today.” ~ Garth Brooks

Purpose is what gives life a meaning. ~ Charles Henry Parkhurst

If you don’t stand up for something, you may fall for anything. ~ Les Brown

I don’t think life is absurd. I think we are all here for a huge purpose. I think we shrink from the immensity of the purpose we are here for. ~ Norman Mailer

You have to know what is right for you and go after it regardless of what others say. ~ Les Brown

What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning. ~ Barbara De Angelis

Nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose— a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. ~ Mary Shelley

Purpose… is held to be most closely connected with virtue, and to be a better token of our character than are even our acts. ~ Aristotle

He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers. ~ Henry Brooks Adams

Purpose is a desire for something in our own power, coupled with an investigation into its means. ~ Aristotle

Nothing is more creative … nor destructive … than a brilliant mind with a purpose. ~ Dan Brown

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. ~ Buddha

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. ~ John Mason Brown

It may be that there was no reason or purpose, for mankind must always be finding reasons where there are none, and comfort in a purpose that hardly exists. ~ Jeanette Winterson

The purpose firm is equal to the deed. ~ Edward Young

It’s only … when we’re stripped of purpose that we know who we are. ~ Samuel R. Delany

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. ~ Washington Irving

Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it. ~ James Allen

Childhood may do without a grand purpose, but manhood cannot. ~ Josiah Gilbert Holland

No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going. ~ Oliver Cromwell

Purpose directs energy, and purpose makes energy. ~ Charles Henry Parkhurst

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose direction and begin to bend. ~ Walter Savage Landor

To have no set purpose in one’s life is the harlotry of the will. ~ Stephen MacKenna

When through one man a little more love and goodness, a little more light and truth comes into the world, then that man’s life has had meaning. ~ Alfred Delp

There may be ways in which we can work for change. We don’t have to do dramatic things or devote our entire lives to it. We can lead normal lives but at the same time try hard not to be bystanders. ~ Helen Bamber

The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder — waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you. ~ Thomas Carlyle

Purpose has no place in biology, but history has no meaning without it. ~ George Kubler

What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve but the will to labour. ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Now I shall be of some use in the world, as every one ought to be; it is the only way to be happy. ~ Hans Christian Andersen

A useless life is an early death. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. ~ James Allen

If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable. ~ Seneca

Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life’s blood … but everyone has something to give. ~ Barbara Bush

Does not the latent feeling that much of their striving is to no purpose tend to infuse large quantities of sham into men’s work? ~ William Allingham

Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose. ~ Leo Buscaglia

God created man on purpose, and for a purpose. ~ Zig Ziglar

If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal. ~ Carl Sagan

What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question. ~ Margaret Atwood

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

An “unemployed” existence is a worse negation of life than death itself. ~ José Ortega y Gasset

Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past. ~ Samuel Johnson

We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years, and justify our existence… on pain of liquidation. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Never be afraid to treat the path alone. Know which is your path and follow it wherever it may lead you; do not feel you have to follow in someone else’s footsteps. ~ Gita Bellin

To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. ~ Alan Coren

The man who is happy is fulfilling the purpose of existence. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Ah, only he who knows where he sails, knows what wind is good, and a fair wind for him. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

All persons are puzzles until at last we find in some word or act the key to the man, to the woman; straightway all their past words and actions lie in light before us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Irrigators guide water; arrow-makers straighten arrows; carpenters bend wood; wise people shape themselves. ~ Buddha

When you walk in purpose, you collide with destiny. ~ Ralph Buchanan

The purpose of man is in action not thought. ~ Thomas Carlyle

The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. ~ Abraham Lincoln

From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful every way I could. ~ Mary McLeod Bethune

On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life. ~ Bookpreview