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Quotation of the day
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Daily Quote:
"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests" (Vidal, Gore - Language)

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Proverb of the Day
All that glitters is not gold.
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Browse Quotations about Purpose

A just cause is not ruined by a few mistakes.
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.
A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
A pilgrim is a wanderer with purpose.
A purpose you impart is no longer your own.
Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.
All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.
Anyone can live heroically and successfully for one day. The man who achieves a high purpose makes that day the pattern for all the days of his life.
Are we interested in sight seeing or soul saving?
At a turbulent public meeting once I lost my temper and said some harsh and sarcastic things. The proposal I was supporting was promptly defeated. My father who was there, said nothing, but that night, on my pillow I found a marked passage from Aristotle: Anybody can become angry--that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way -- that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose.
Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.
Be not simply good; be good for something.
Be the business never so painful, you may have it done for money.
Better to die of something than to die in old age of nothing.
Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward toward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Bring me men to match my mountains: Bring me men to match my plains: Men with empires in their purpose and new eras in their brains.
Don't become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.
Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.
Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
Every man is occasionally visited by the suspicion that the planet on which he is riding is not really going anywhere; that the Force which controls its measured eccentricities hasn't got anything special in mind. If he broods on this somber theme long enough he gets the doleful idea that the laughing children on a merry-go-round or the thin, fine hands of a lady's watch are revolving more purposely than he is.
Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.
Every why has a wherefore.
Everything happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves you.
Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.
Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
Fear God and work hard.
For an athlete to function properly, he must be intent. There has to be a definite purpose and goal if you are to progress. If you are not intent about what you are doing, you aren't able to resist the temptation to do something else that might be more fun at the moment.
For I say unto you in all sadness of conviction that to think great thoughts you must be heroes as well as idealists. Only when you have worked alone -- when you have felt around you are a black gulf of solitude more isolating than that which surrounds the dying man, and in hope and despair have trusted to your own unshaken will -- then only can you gain the secret isolated joy of the thinker, who knows that a hundred years after he is dead and forgotten men who have never heard of him will be moving to the measure of his thought -- the subtle rapture of postponed power, which the world knows not because it has no external trappings, but which to his prophetic vision is more real than that which commands an army. And if this joy should not be yours, still it is only thus you can know that you have done what lay in you to do -- can say that you have lived, and be ready for the end.
Give me a man who says, This one thing I do, and not, These fifty things, I dabble in.
Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.
He who clings to life shall lose it -- but losing it in a right cause will gain it.
How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become -- to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.
I just wake up and say, You're a bum, go do something worthwhile today.
I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose...
I live for my sons. I would be lost without them.
I see no business in life but the work of Christ.
I think that a lot of women are made to feel that they have not done the one thing that they were put on the earth to do if they didn't do the normal thing, if they didn't take the most traveled path. And it's unfortunate.
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.
If we don't stand for something, we may fall for anything.
If you don't stand up for something, you may fall for anything.
In a just cause the weak will beat the strong.
It is essential that we enable young people to see themselves as participants in one of the most exciting eras in history, and to have a sense of purpose in relation to it.
It is good to follow one's own bent, so long as it leads upward.
It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end
It is your work in life that is your ultimate seduction.
It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted.
Knowing our personal mission further enhances the flow of mysterious coincidences as we are guided toward our destinies. First we have a question, then dreams, daydreams, and intuitions lead us toward the answers, which usually are synchronistically provided by the wisdom of another human being.
Lack of something to feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have.
Make sure the thing you're living for is worth dying for.
Man becomes greater in proportion to knowing himself and his faculties. Let him become conscious of what he is and he will soon also learn what he should be.
Man's chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.
Many good purposes lie in the churchyard.
Many men go fishing their entire lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.
Many people flounder about in life because they do not have a purpose, an objective toward which to work.
Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim.
Mix a conviction with a man and something happens.
Multitudes of people, drifting aimlessly to and fro without a set purpose, deny themselves such fulfillment of their capacities, and the satisfying happiness which attends it. They are not wicked, they are only shallow. They are not mean or vicious; they simply are empty -- shake them and they would rattle like gourds. They lack range, depth, and conviction. Without purpose their lives ultimately wander into the morass of dissatisfaction. As we harness our abilities to a steady purpose and undertake the long pull toward its accomplishment, rich compensations reward us. A sense of purpose simplifies life and therefore concentrates our abilities; and concentration adds power.
My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right.
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.
No one sat me down with a piece of paper and said, ?This is what is expected of you. But I?m lucky enough in the fact that I have found my role I love being with people.?
Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose.
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose-a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house f the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. [Psalms 27:4]
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. [Philippians 1:27]
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.
Ordinary people think merely of spending time. Great people think of using it.
Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.
People should follow their own energy.
Pep without purpose is piffle.
Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
Purpose is what gives life a meaning.
Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes; lesser ones exist on wishes and inclinations.