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Purpose Quotes

    “We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world with a finer spirit of hope and achievement- and we impoverish ourselves if we forget the errand.” ~ Woodrow Wilson

      We all die.  The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.

        “I’ve learned that, without a strong reason or purpose, anything in life is hard.”

        Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad (Page 204)

          "You don't become happy by pursuing happiness.  You become happy by living a life that means something."

          “You don’t become happy by pursuing happiness.  You become happy by living a life that means something.”

            “Every piece of the universe, even the tiniest little snow crystal, matters somehow. I have a place in the pattern, and so do you.” ~ T.A. Barron

              ‎”Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

                Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter.

                Two Tramps in Mud Time

                  Out of the mud two strangers came
                  And caught me splitting wood in the yard,
                  And one of them put me off my aim
                  By hailing cheerily “Hit them hard!”
                  I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind
                  And let the other go on a way.
                  I knew pretty well what he had in mind:
                  He wanted to take my job for pay.

                  Good blocks of oak it was I split,
                  As large around as the chopping block;
                  And every piece I squarely hit
                  Fell splinterless as a cloven rock.
                  The blows that a life of self-control
                  Spares to strike for the common good,
                  That day, giving a loose my soul,
                  I spent on the unimportant wood.

                  The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
                  You know how it is with an April day
                  When the sun is out and the wind is still,
                  You’re one month on in the middle of May.
                  But if you so much as dare to speak,
                  A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
                  A wind comes off a frozen peak,
                  And you’re two months back in the middle of March.

                  A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight
                  And turns to the wind to unruffle a plume,
                  His song so pitched as not to excite
                  A single flower as yet to bloom.
                  It is snowing a flake; and he half knew
                  Winter was only playing possum.
                  Except in color he isn’t blue,
                  But he wouldn’t advise a thing to blossom.

                  The water for which we may have to look
                  In summertime with a witching wand,
                  In every wheelrut’s now a brook,
                  In every print of a hoof a pond.
                  Be glad of water, but don’t forget
                  The lurking frost in the earth beneath
                  That will steal forth after the sun is set
                  And show on the water its crystal teeth.

                  The time when most I loved my task
                  The two must make me love it more
                  By coming with what they came to ask.
                  You’d think I never had felt before
                  The weight of an ax-head poised aloft,
                  The grip of earth on outspread feet,
                  The life of muscles rocking soft
                  And smooth and moist in vernal heat.

                  Out of the wood two hulking tramps
                  (From sleeping God knows where last night,
                  But not long since in the lumber camps).
                  They thought all chopping was theirs of right.
                  Men of the woods and lumberjacks,
                  The judged me by their appropriate tool.
                  Except as a fellow handled an ax
                  They had no way of knowing a fool.

                  Nothing on either side was said.
                  They knew they had but to stay their stay
                  And all their logic would fill my head:
                  As that I had no right to play
                  With what was another man’s work for gain.
                  My right might be love but theirs was need.
                  And where the two exist in twain
                  Theirs was the better right–agreed.

                  But yield who will to their separation,
                  My object in living is to unite
                  My avocation and my vocation
                  As my two eyes make one in sight.
                  Only where love and need are one,
                  And the work is play for mortal stakes,
                  Is the deed ever really done
                  For Heaven and the future’s sakes.

                  ~ Robert Frost

                    “The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests wide and far, enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before, and which they were not capable of alone.  The consciousness of belonging, vitally, to something beyond individuality; of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where, in space and time, greatens the heart to the limit of the souls ideal, and builds out the supreme character.” ~ Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

                      “To every man there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered a chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents.  What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour.” ~ Sir Winston Churchill

                        “I know this now.  Every man gives his life to what he believes.  Every woman gives her life for what she believes.  Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and so they give their lives to little or nothing…” ~ Joan of Arc

                          “You have not done enough, you have never done enough so long as it is still possible that you have something of value to contribute.” ~ Dag Hammarskjold

                           

                            “I am no longer a young man filled with energy and vitality.  I’m given to meditation and prayer.  I would enjoy sitting in a rocker, swallowing prescriptions, listening to soft music, and contemplating the things of the universe.  But such activity offers no challenge and makes no contribution.  I wish to be up and doing.  I wish to face each day with resolution and purpose.  I wish to use every waking hour to give encouragement, to bless those whose burdens are heavy, to build faith and strength of testimony.  It is a presence of wonderful people which stimulates the adrenaline.  It is the look of love in their eyes which gives me energy.” ~ Gordon B. Hinckley, Age Ninety-Two

                              “You’re not going to find the meaning of life hidden under a rock written by someone else.  You’ll only find it by giving meaning to life from inside of yourself.” ~ Dr. Robert Firestone

                                “Every man has a purpose, something special that he can do better than anyone else. Your work is to discover this, then give yourself to it. The extent to which you use your skills to add to the world determines your happiness.” ~ Deepak Chopra

                                  “Self-knowledge is best learned, not by contemplation, but by action.  Strive to do your duty and you will soon discover of what stuff you are made.” ~ Johann Goethe

                                    “People want to be recognized.  They want to be celebrated in some way.  They want to be made to feel as if they really do count for something.  And they want a place where they can belong in the community that stands for something more than just an enterprise that makes money.” ~ Martin Coles, Starbucks International President

                                      “This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one;  being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

                                        “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman

                                          Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.” ~ Nido Qubein