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Purpose Quotes

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Purpose Quotes

“Every year, in the deep midwinter, there descends upon this world a terrible fortnight. ... every shop is a choked mass of humanity ... nerves are jangled and frayed, purses emptied to no purposes, all amusements and all occupations suspended in favor of frightful businesses with brown paper, string, letters, cards, stamps, and crammed post offices. This period is doubtless a foretaste of whatever purgatory lies in store for human creatures.”

WorldYearsHumansLyingPurposeHumanityThis WorldPeriodsTerribleCreaturesOfficePaperMassLettersStoresFavorsChristmasCardsPostsShopsBrownStringsNervesOccupationStampsAmusementPursesSuspendedPurgatoryPost OfficeFortnightMidwinter
Author:Rose Macaulay
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“The root of honesty is an honest intention, the distinct and deliberate purpose to be true, to handle facts as they are, and not as we wish them to be. Facts lend themselves to manipulation. Many a butcher's hand is worth more than its weight in gold. What we want things to be, we come to see them to be; and the tailor pulls the coat and the truth into a perfect fit from his point of view.”

WantFactsHandsPurposeWishPerfectViewsHonestHonestyFitRootsGoldWeightIntentionPoint Of ViewHandleBeing TrueManipulationCoatsDeliberateButchersTailorsPerfect Fit
Author:Maltbie Davenport Babcock
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“Language changes. If it does not change, like Latin it dies. But we need to be aware that as our language changes, so does our theology change, particularly if we are trying to manipulate language for a specific purpose. That is what is happening with our attempts at inclusive language, which thus far have been inconclusive and unsuccessful.”

IfsNeedsTryingDoeHas BeensPurposeDiesLanguageHappeningsTheologyLatinManipulateUnsuccessful
Author:Madeleine L'Engle
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“No one would think of bringing a dog into church. For though a dog is all very well on a gravel path, and shows no disrespect to flowers, the way he wanders down an aisle, looking, lifting a paw, and approaching a pillar with a purpose that makes the blood run cold with horror ... a dog destroys the service completely.”

ThinkingWayWellsShowsRunningPurposeChurchPathBloodDogFlowerColdHorrorWanderLiftingDisrespectPillarsAislePawsGravel
Book:Jacob's Room
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“[On the Internet and activism:] The danger of the Internet is cocooning with the like-minded online - of sending an email or twitter and confusing that with action - while the real corporate and military and government centers of power go right on. In a way, the highest purpose of the Internet is to bring us together for empathy and action. After all, the reflector cells and empathy-producing chemicals in our brains only work when we're physically together with all five senses. You can't raise a baby online.”

WayRealGovernmentActionTogetherPurposeBrainFiveMilitaryDangerBabyInternetHighestEmpathyRaisesActivismSensesCellsCorporateOnlineChemicalsEmailConfusingFive Senses
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“What man so wise, what earthly wit so ware, As to descry the crafty cunning train, By which deceit doth mask in visor fair, And cast her colours dyed deep in grain, To seem like truth, whose shape she well can feign, And fitting gestures to her purpose frame, The guiltless man with guile to entertain?”

MenWellsSeemsPurposeWiseShapesFairsTrainCastsWitColourMaskDeceitGesturesGrainCunningFittingCraftyGuile
Book:Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene
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“There is such a difference between the pursuits of men in great cities that one part of the inhabitants lives to little other purpose than to wonder at the rest. Some have hopes and fears, wishes and aversions, which never enter into the thoughts of others, and inquiry is laboriously exerted to gain that which those who possess it are ready to throw away.”

MenLittlesPurposeWishDifferencesCitiesWonderReadyGainsPursuitInquiryHaving HopeAversionGreat CitiesHopes And Fears
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius
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“Wherever is love and loyalty, great purposes and lofty souls, even though in a hovel or a mine, there is fairyland.”

SoulPurposeMinesLoyaltyLoftyLove And Loyalty
Book:Westward ho!: The voyages and adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, knight, of Burrough, in the county of Devon, in the reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth
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“But the individual was not a tool for something. He was the maker of tools. He was the one who must build. Even for the best purpose it is criminal to turn an individual into simply a means for some ultimate end. A society in which the dignity of the individual is destroyed cannot hope to be a decent society.”

MeanEndsPurposeTurnsIndividualSocietyToolsDignityUltimateCriminalsDestroyedDecentMakers
Book:A land of our own: an oral autobiography
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“Like language, a code of manners can be used with more or less skill, for laudable or for evil purposes, to express a great variety of ideas and emotions. In itself, it carries no moral value, but ignorance in use of this tool is not a sign of virtue.”

IdeasUseUsedPurposeValuesEvilLanguageEmotionMoralVirtueIgnoranceSkillsToolsVarietyMannersCodeCarrieMoral Values
Book:Common courtesy: in which Miss Manners solves the problem that baffled Mr. Jefferson
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“When we do not know the truth of a thing, it is good that there should exist a common error which determines the mind of man, as, for example, the moon, to which is attributed the change of seasons, the progress of diseases, etc. For the chief malady of man is a restless curiosity about things which he cannot understand; and it is not so bad for him to be in error as to be curious to no purpose.”

KnowsMenShouldMindTruthPurposeCommonProgressExampleMoonDiseaseSeasonsErrorsCuriosityDetermineCuriousChiefsMotiveEtcRestlessMaladySeasons Change
Book:Pascal's Pensees
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“When the life of the nation was attempted, when the cause of liberty and human rights called for their aid, they rushed forth to rally under the banner they loved, with grand singleness of purpose and heroic devotion--leaving all behind them, to meet toil and danger, hunger, sickness, wounds, and death, for nothing but the sublime satisfaction of doing their duty to their country and to mankind.”

HumansCountryPurposeNationsCausesBehindsLibertyRightsMankindDangerDutyLeavingHungerHuman RightsSatisfactionAidsWoundsDevotionSicknessHeroicSublimeToilBannerSinglenessSingleness Of Purpose
Author:Carl Schurz
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“Rather do what is nothing to the purpose than be idle; that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot, when fliers scape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and the self-made sepulchre of a living man.”

MenMayMadeSelfPurposeVirtueSeaBirdDevilShotsTheeIdleIdlenessSelf MadeScapes
Book:Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles
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“Let the words of a virgin, though in a good cause, and to as good purpose, be neither violent, many, nor first, nor last; it is less shame for a virgin to be lost in a blushing silence than to be found in a bold eloquence.”

FirstsLastsPurposeFoundLostCausesSilenceShameViolentVirginsEloquenceBlushingGood Causes
Book:Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles
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“When I was younger I thought success was something different. I thought, " When I grow up, I want to be famous. I want to be a star. I want to be in movies. When I grow up I want to see the world, drive nice cars. I want to have groupies." But my idea of success is different today. For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and not to give into peer pressure, to try to be something that you're not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. To contribute in some way.”

WorldWayWantGivingTryingPersonsImportantIdeasDifferentMotivationalTodaySuccessLife IsPurposeStarsGrowsGrowing UpNiceHonestCarIntegrityPressureImportant ThingsCompassionatePeersLive Your LifeGiving BackPeer PressureGroupieNice CarsImportant Things In Your Life
Author:Ellen DeGeneres
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“Every act of motherhood contains a dual intent, as the mother holds the child close and prepares it to move way from her, as she supports the child and stands it firmly on its own feet, and as she guards it against danger and sends it out across the yard, down by the stream, and across the traffic-crowded highway. Unless a mother can do both - gather her child close and turn her child out toward the world - she will fail in her purpose.”

WorldWayChildrenMovingMotherPurposeTurnsCan DoSupportFailingFeetDangerMotherhoodStreamsTrafficYardsHighwaysCrowded
Author:Margaret Mead
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“The perfectly natural thing to do with an unreadable book is to give it away; and the publication, for more than a quarter of a century, of volumes which fulfilled this one purpose and no other is a pleasant proof, if proof were needed, of the business principles which underlay the enlightened activity of publishers.”

IfsGivingBookPurposeNaturalPrinciplesCenturyNeededActivityProofThings To DoPleasantEnlightenedQuartersVolumeFulfilledPublishersPublicationNatural ThingsPerfectly NaturalQuarter Of A Century
Book:A Happy Half-century: And Other Essays
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“The names of great painters are like passing-bells: in the name of Velasquez you hear sounded the fall of Spain; .in the name of Titian, that of Venice; in the name of Leonardo, that of Milan; in the name of Raphael, that of Rome. And there is profound justice in this, for in proportion to the nobleness of the power is the guilt of its use for purposes vain or vile; and hitherto the greater the art, the more surely has it been used, and used solely, for the decoration of pride or the provoking of sensuality.”

ArtUseUsedPurposeFallNamesJusticeGreaterPrideGuiltProfoundPassingPassingsPainterSensualityVainProportionRomeBellsProvokingSpainVeniceDecorationLeonardoRaphaelMilan
Author:John Ruskin
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“He that would relish success to a purpose should keep his passions cool, and his expectations low; and then it is possible that his fortune might exceed his fancy; for an advantage always rises by surprise; and is almost always doubled by being unlooked for.”

ShouldMightSuccessPurposePassionLowsExpectationsAdvantageFortuneSurpriseFancyExceedRelish
Book:Pearls of Great Price: or, Maxims, reflections, characters and thoughts, on miscellaneous subjects ... Selected from the works of the Rev. Jeremy Collier by the editor of
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