 | *
What
is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.
-- Aristotle (384-322
BC) |
"The
purpose of life is a life of purpose."
-- Robert Byrne
"People say that what we're
all seeking is a meaning for life... I think that what we're really seeking is
an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical
plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can
actually feel the rapture of being alive."
-- Joseph Campbell
"It is the first of all problems
for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe."
--
Thomas Carlyle
| I feel
the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.
-- Pablo Casals The
first thing to do in life is to do with purpose what one purposes to do.
--
Pablo Casals |
"Each
of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly
be, and do what no other can exactly do."
-- William Ellery Channing
| Most
of what we take as being important is not material, whether it's music or feelings
or love. They're things we can't really see or touch. They're not material, but
they're vitally important to us.
--
Judy Collins
| 
|
| 
|
"Reverence
for life is more than solicitude or sensitivity for life. It is a sense of the
whole, a capacity for inspired response, a respect for the intricate universe
of individual life. It is the supreme awareness of awareness itself."
--
Norman
Cousins "Although
a man may have no jurisdiction over the fact of his existence, he can hold supreme
command over the meaning of existence for him."
--
Norman
Cousins |
*
Our prime purpose in
this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.
- The Dalai Lama |
|
"Walk
in the ways of thine heart."
-- Ecclesiastes 11:19
| "The
ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage
to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth..."
--
Albert Einstein
|  |
"The
ultimate aim of the human mind, in all its efforts, is to become acquainted with
Truth."
-- Eliza Farnham
"Let
no one be like another, yet everyone like the highest. How is this done? Be each
one perfect in himself."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The man who is born with a
talent which he is meat to use, finds his greatest happiness in using it."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"We're
here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out
to lead people through the dark."
-- Whoopi
Goldberg |  |
 |
You would not
exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.
-- Herbie
Hancock You
don't need the fame to be vital.
-- Herbie
Hancock |
"If
you live for love you spread kindness and compassion everywhere you go. When you
stop believing in your heart you are but a sterile vessel wandering in the wilderness."
-- Francis Hegmeyer
It
is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn
to see the other and honor him for what he is.
-- Hermann Hesse
"Walk in the light of your
own fire, and in the flame which ye have kindled."
-- Isaiah 50:11
"If
you have built castles in the air, your work need not
be lost. Now put foundations under them."
-- Osa Johnson
Life
without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing; every
day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves,
'This day let me make a sound beginning
-- Thomas Kempis
I
find trying to solve problems and save lives is
far more important than my film career.
-- Nicole
Kidman
|
|
|
|
My
trust in a higher power that wants me to survive and
have love in my life, is what keeps me moving forward.
--
Kenny
Loggins |
|
|
*
"That consciousness is everything and that all things
begin with a thought. That we are responsible for
our own fate, we reap what we sow, we get what we
give, we pull in what we put out. I know these things
for sure."
--
Madonna
|
It
is not "history" which uses men as a means of achieving
-- as if it were an individual person -- its own ends.
History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit
of their ends.
-– Karl Marx
Real
success is finding your lifework in the work that you
love.
-- David McCullough
"Use
those talents you have. You will make it. You will give
joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods
would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those
who sang best."
-- Bernard Meltzer
"The
beautiful in life...
Some talk of it in poetry,
Some grow it from the soil,
Some build it in a steeple,
Some show it through their toil.
Some breathe it into music,
Some mold it into art,
Some shape it into bread loaves...
Some hold it in their hearts."
-- Bernard Meltzer
"We
spend all our time looking for some concept of Truth,
but Truth is what is left when we drop all concepts."
-- David Merzel
"The
great and glorious masterpiece of humanity is to know
how to live with a purpose."
-- Montaigne
"Everything
in life is most fundamentally a gift. And you receive
it best and you live it best by holding it with very open
hands."
-- Leo O'Donovan
"Deep
down, all of us are probably aware that some kind of mystical
evolution is our true task. Yet we suppress the notion
with considerable force because to admit it is to admit
that most of our political gyrations, religious dogmas,
social ambitions, and financial ploys are not merely counter-productive
but trivial."
-- Tom Robbins
"Begin
at once to live, and count each day as a separate life."
-- Seneca
"This
above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not be false to any man."
-- William Shakespeare
|
"I
am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community,
and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do
for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used
up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I
live. Life is no 'brief candle" to me. It is a sort
of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a
moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as
possible before handing it on to future generations."
-- George
Bernard Shaw
|
|
A
ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are
for.
-- William Shedd
|
The
first part of the Answer to the Question of the
'Meaning of Life' is about the way to truly Live.
And that is to love and be loved by the people in
your life with all your heart, and to seek to live
in the Now – to strive to be present with them,
and remember this mission and purpose through the
struggles and the joy, and to share together the
amazing journey of life. The second part is to see
Life as more than your own life and your own time.
To see that throughout time, humanity has shared
a vision of ‘peace on earth’. And though it is an
impossible dream, only a life lived in service to
humanity – in honor of this shared goal – can help
to validate the struggles of the 93 billion people
who have lived and died, the 7 billion dreams of
those alive today, and the hope of humanity to come.
The third is to find a balance between the two –
between living your individual life to the fullest,
while striving to help humanity evolve to a higher
consciousness of compassion, meaning and purpose.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
|
 |
To
freely bloom - that is my definition of success.
-- Gerry Spence
"He
that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is
evil is a slave, though he be a king."
-- St. Augustine
|
"Pursue
some path, however narrow and crooked, in which
you can walk with love and reverence."
-- Henry
David Thoreau
"Only
he is successful in his business who makes that
pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain
him."
-- Henry
David Thoreau
"I
know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable
ability of man to elevate his life by conscious
endeavor."
-- Henry
David Thoreau
|
 |
"I
learned at least this by my experiments. That if one advances
confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors
to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with
a success unexpected in common hours."
-- Henry
David Thoreau
The
point of living and of being an optimist, is to
be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to
come.
-- Peter
Ustinov
|
|
Quotes
on the Meaning of Life
Page
1 | Page 2
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