Some people live as though the purpose of life is to be entertained, but might there be some greater purpose for them?
“Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great and strong purpose in your heart.” -Gordon B. Hinckley (Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910 - 2008))
“We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.” -William Osler (1849 - 1919)
“Every noble life leaves its fiber interwoven forever in the work of the world.” -John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.” -David Viscott (David Steven Viscott (1938 - 1996))
“We are here on Earth to do good unto others. What the others are here for, I have no idea.” -W. H. Auden (Wystan Hugh Auden (1907 - 1973))
“Love life and help others to love life. Be happy and make others happy.” -Author Unknown
“You are asking yourself, as all of us must: ‘Who am I?’ . . . ‘Where am I?’ . . . ‘Whence do I go?’ The process of enlightenment is usually slow. But, in the end, our seeking always brings a finding. These great mysteries are, after all, enshrined in complete simplicity.” -Bill W. (William Griffith Wilson (1895 - 1971))
“It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.” -Author Unknown
“The purpose of life is living. Men and women should get the most they can out of their lives. The smallest, the tiniest intellect may be quite as valuable to itself; it may have all the capacity for enjoyment that the wisest has.” -Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938)
“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.” -Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)
“I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein (Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)): as quoted in Peter Hershey: “The Beginning of the End” (2004), page 109
“We are not powerless specks of dust drifting around in the wind, blown by random destiny. We are, each of us, like beautiful snowflakes - unique, and born for a specific reason and purpose.” -Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926 - 2004): “To Live Until You Say Goodbye”
“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 (born 1951)
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I woke and saw that life was service. I served and behold, service was joy.” -Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
“If you would find happiness and joy, lose your life in some noble cause. A worthy purpose must be at the center of every worthy life.” -Jack H. Goaslind, Junior
“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” -William James (1842 - 1910)
“I see my purpose in life as making the world a happier place to be in.” -David Niven
“The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this Earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not ‘to have and to hold’ but ‘to give and to serve.’ There can be no other meaning.” -Wilfred T. Grenfell
“No matter what age you are, or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning.” -Barbara De Angelis (born 1951)
“Life is not long, and too much of it should not be spent in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784): as quoted in James Boswell: “Life of Johnson”
“Unless a life is lived for others, it is not worthwhile.” -Teresa of Calcutta (Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (1910 - 1997))
“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” -Robert Byrne: “The 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said” (1988)
“I have discovered the meaning of life. It resides in what I can wrest* from each day that I live.” -Nancy Thayer
* wrest: take with effort.
“There are ten or twenty basic truths, and life is the process of discovering them over and over and over.” -David Nichols
“Man cannot stand a meaningless life.” -C. G. Jung (Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961))
“Our destiny can be examined, but it cannot be justified or totally explained. We are simply here.” -Jean Iris Murdoch
“Perhaps the meaning of life is something each of us is meant to try to figure out for our own selves, and in so doing, learn things that we could learn in no other way and upon which we might not otherwise place so high a value.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be ‘happy.’ I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” -Leo Rosten (1908 - 1997): “Passions and Prejudices” (1978)
“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our own life.” -Anaïs Nin (born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (1903 - 1977))
“There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself.” -Erich Fromm (Erich Seligmann Fromm (1900 - 1980))
“Don’t ask what the meaning of life is; you define it.” -Author Unknown
“Man is the only animal for whom his existence is a problem which he has to solve.” -Erich Fromm (Erich Seligmann Fromm (1900 - 1980)): “Man for Himself” (1947)
“The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - a 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 (1795 - 1881)
“Life’s meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.” -E. B. White (Elwyn Brooks White (1899 - 1985))
“The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.” -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918 - 2008))
“Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we’re all of us looking for the key.” -Alan Bennett (born 1934)
“What is the meaning of life? Whatever you want it to be.” -James Frey
“Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.” -Harold Kushner (Harold Samuel Kushner (born 1935))
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” -C. G. Jung (Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961))
“Purpose is what gives life a meaning.” -Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842 - 1933)
“I used to trouble about what life was for; now being alive seems sufficient reason.” -Joanna Field
“Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944))
“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” -Ken Hudgins
“There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world - its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That’s all there is to it.” -Anne Rice (born 1941)
“The meaning and purpose of life is too important to be decided by philosophers and sages; let’s hear what the simpletons and fools have to say about it.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“To be human is to keep rattling the bars of the cage of existence hollering, ‘What’s it for?’” -Robert Fulghum (Robert Lee Fulghum (born 1937))
“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” -Mitch Albom (born 1958)
“Life itself has no meaning; life is an opportunity to create a meaning.” -Author Unknown
“He who has a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how’.” -Friedrich Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)): “Twilight of the Idols” (1888), ‘Maxims and Arrows,’ 12
Meaning and Purpose of Life Quiz
- Why do people ask the question, “What is the meaning and purpose of life?”
- What is the meaning and purpose of life?
- Can different people believe that life has different meanings and purposes?
- What meaning and purpose have you given to your life?
“Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.” -Leo Buscaglia (1924 - 1998)
“The essence of life is finding something you really love and then making the daily experience worthwhile.” -Denis Waitley (Denis E. Waitley (born 1933))
“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.” -Myrna Lay
“The meaning of life is to live it.” -Author Unknown
“I’m going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life.” -Elsie de Wolfe
We are MFOL! . . . because what would life be without fun . . .
“Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great and strong purpose in your heart.” -Gordon B. Hinckley (Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910 - 2008))
“We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.” -William Osler (1849 - 1919)
“Every noble life leaves its fiber interwoven forever in the work of the world.” -John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.” -David Viscott (David Steven Viscott (1938 - 1996))
“We are here on Earth to do good unto others. What the others are here for, I have no idea.” -W. H. Auden (Wystan Hugh Auden (1907 - 1973))
“Love life and help others to love life. Be happy and make others happy.” -Author Unknown
“You are asking yourself, as all of us must: ‘Who am I?’ . . . ‘Where am I?’ . . . ‘Whence do I go?’ The process of enlightenment is usually slow. But, in the end, our seeking always brings a finding. These great mysteries are, after all, enshrined in complete simplicity.” -Bill W. (William Griffith Wilson (1895 - 1971))
“It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.” -Author Unknown
“The purpose of life is living. Men and women should get the most they can out of their lives. The smallest, the tiniest intellect may be quite as valuable to itself; it may have all the capacity for enjoyment that the wisest has.” -Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938)
“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.” -Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)
“I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein (Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)): as quoted in Peter Hershey: “The Beginning of the End” (2004), page 109
“We are not powerless specks of dust drifting around in the wind, blown by random destiny. We are, each of us, like beautiful snowflakes - unique, and born for a specific reason and purpose.” -Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926 - 2004): “To Live Until You Say Goodbye”
“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 (born 1951)
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I woke and saw that life was service. I served and behold, service was joy.” -Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
“If you would find happiness and joy, lose your life in some noble cause. A worthy purpose must be at the center of every worthy life.” -Jack H. Goaslind, Junior
“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” -William James (1842 - 1910)
“I see my purpose in life as making the world a happier place to be in.” -David Niven
“The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this Earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not ‘to have and to hold’ but ‘to give and to serve.’ There can be no other meaning.” -Wilfred T. Grenfell
“No matter what age you are, or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning.” -Barbara De Angelis (born 1951)
“Life is not long, and too much of it should not be spent in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784): as quoted in James Boswell: “Life of Johnson”
“Unless a life is lived for others, it is not worthwhile.” -Teresa of Calcutta (Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (1910 - 1997))
“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” -Robert Byrne: “The 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said” (1988)
“I have discovered the meaning of life. It resides in what I can wrest* from each day that I live.” -Nancy Thayer
* wrest: take with effort.
“There are ten or twenty basic truths, and life is the process of discovering them over and over and over.” -David Nichols
“Man cannot stand a meaningless life.” -C. G. Jung (Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961))
“Our destiny can be examined, but it cannot be justified or totally explained. We are simply here.” -Jean Iris Murdoch
“Perhaps the meaning of life is something each of us is meant to try to figure out for our own selves, and in so doing, learn things that we could learn in no other way and upon which we might not otherwise place so high a value.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be ‘happy.’ I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” -Leo Rosten (1908 - 1997): “Passions and Prejudices” (1978)
“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our own life.” -Anaïs Nin (born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (1903 - 1977))
“There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself.” -Erich Fromm (Erich Seligmann Fromm (1900 - 1980))
“Don’t ask what the meaning of life is; you define it.” -Author Unknown
“Man is the only animal for whom his existence is a problem which he has to solve.” -Erich Fromm (Erich Seligmann Fromm (1900 - 1980)): “Man for Himself” (1947)
“The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - a 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 (1795 - 1881)
“Life’s meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.” -E. B. White (Elwyn Brooks White (1899 - 1985))
“The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.” -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918 - 2008))
“Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we’re all of us looking for the key.” -Alan Bennett (born 1934)
“What is the meaning of life? Whatever you want it to be.” -James Frey
“Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.” -Harold Kushner (Harold Samuel Kushner (born 1935))
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” -C. G. Jung (Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961))
“Purpose is what gives life a meaning.” -Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842 - 1933)
“I used to trouble about what life was for; now being alive seems sufficient reason.” -Joanna Field
“Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944))
“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” -Ken Hudgins
“There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world - its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That’s all there is to it.” -Anne Rice (born 1941)
“The meaning and purpose of life is too important to be decided by philosophers and sages; let’s hear what the simpletons and fools have to say about it.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“To be human is to keep rattling the bars of the cage of existence hollering, ‘What’s it for?’” -Robert Fulghum (Robert Lee Fulghum (born 1937))
“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” -Mitch Albom (born 1958)
“Life itself has no meaning; life is an opportunity to create a meaning.” -Author Unknown
“He who has a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how’.” -Friedrich Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)): “Twilight of the Idols” (1888), ‘Maxims and Arrows,’ 12
Meaning and Purpose of Life Quiz
- Why do people ask the question, “What is the meaning and purpose of life?”
- What is the meaning and purpose of life?
- Can different people believe that life has different meanings and purposes?
- What meaning and purpose have you given to your life?
“Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.” -Leo Buscaglia (1924 - 1998)
“The essence of life is finding something you really love and then making the daily experience worthwhile.” -Denis Waitley (Denis E. Waitley (born 1933))
“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.” -Myrna Lay
“The meaning of life is to live it.” -Author Unknown
“I’m going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life.” -Elsie de Wolfe
We are MFOL! . . . because what would life be without fun . . .
