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Purpose Quotes

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Purpose Quotes

“One has but to observe a community of beavers at work in a stream to understand the loss in his sagacity, balance, co-operation, competence, and purpose which Man has suffered since he rose up on his hind legs. He began to chatter and he developed Reason, Thought, and Imagination, qualities which would get the smartest group of rabbits or orioles in the world into inextricable trouble overnight.”

MenWorldReasonPurposeHumanityCommunityImaginationLossQualityTroubleGroupsBalanceRoseLegsOperationsStreamsRabbitsCompetenceChatterBeaversSagacity
Book:Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself
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“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.”

IfsMenMindChildrenLongIdeasEnoughHandsPurposeForceWatchesLaughingSpecialPlanetsFineRoundsEvery ManThemeRidingSuspicionMerryEccentricityRevolvingSomberMerry Go RoundDoleful
Book:Writings and Drawings
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“One can write out of love or hate. Hate tells one a great deal about a person. Love makes one become the person. Love, contrary to legend, is not half as blind, at least for writing purposes, as hate. Love can see the evil and not cease to be love. Hate cannot see the good and remain hate. The writer, writing out of hatred, will, thus, paint a far more partial picture than if he had written out of love.”

IfsWritingPersonsPurposeHateEvilDealsHalfWrittenHatredBlindPaintContraryCeaseLegendsLove HateLove Or HatePersons Love
Book:To see the dream
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“Perhaps in our presence, the most heroic deed on earth is done in some silent spirit, the loftiest purpose cherished, the most generous sacrifice made, and we do not suspect it. I believe this greatness to be most common among the multitude, whose names are never heard.”

BelieveMadeDoneEarthSpiritPurposeNamesI BelieveCommonHeardSacrificeGreatnessSilentDeedsGenerousSuspectsHeroicMultitudesHeroic Deeds
Book:Self-culture: An address introductory to the Franklin lectures, delivered at Boston, September, 1838
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“Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life, itself, whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it? ... A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that ever entered into the heads of men.”

PeopleMenMayShowsGovernmentAmericaPurposeMilitaryDutyValuableRidiculousSurrenderContradictionNonsenseAmbitiousShow MeFree GovernmentMischievousConscription
Author:Daniel Webster
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“It was an interesting thing to do. Why did I write any of my books, after all? For the sake of the pleasure, for the sake of the difficulty. I have no social purpose, no moral message; I've no general ideas to exploit, I just like composing riddles with elegant solutions.”

WritingBookIdeasPurposeSocialPleasureInterestingMoralMessagesSolutionsDifficultySakeThings To DoElegantExploitsInteresting ThingsRiddleComposingElegant Solutions
Book:Strong opinions
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“Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods.”

PurposeEconomicsGoodsPurchasing
Book:An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations With a Life of the Author: Also a View of the Doctrine of Smith, Compared with that of the French Economists, with a Method of Facilitating the Study of His Works, from the French of M. Jariner
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“When Jesus sent forth his servants formerly he sent them to preach this Gospel. When the Father and the Son and Moroni and others came to Joseph Smith, he had a priesthood conferred upon him which he conferred upon others for the purpose of manifesting the laws of life, the Gospel of the Son of God, by direct authority, that light and truth might be spread forth among all nations.”

LightMightLawPurposeFatherJesusNationsSonAuthorityDirectSpreadServantManifestPriesthoodLaws Of LifeJoseph Smith
Author:John Taylor
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“In every part of the universe we observe means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce; and in the mechanism of a plant, or animal body, admire how every thing is contrived for advancing the two great purposes of nature, the support of the individual, and the propagation of the species.”

MeanTwoEndsBodyPurposeUniverseIndividualAnimalSupportProducePlantSpeciesAdmireMechanismAdvancingArtificePropagation
Book:The Essential Adam Smith
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“One cannot ignore half of life for the purposes of science, and then claim that the results of science give a full and adequate picture of the meaning of life. All discussions of 'life' which begin with a description of man's place on a speck of matter in space, in an endless evolutionary scale, are bound to be half-measures, because they leave out most of the experiences which are important to use as human beings.”

MenGivingHumansImportantMatterUsePurposeHuman BeingsSpaceResultsHalfClaimsBoundsScalesEndlessDiscussionMeaning Of LifeDescriptionAdequateBeing MeSpecksBeing MeanHalf Measures
Author:Colin Wilson
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“Each of us is the next step in evolution along the lineage created by our two parents. Our higher purpose on earth can be found by recognizing what our parents accomplished and where they left off. By reconciling what they gave us with what they left us to resolve, we can get a clear picture of who we are and what we are meant to do.”

TwoEarthPurposeNextFoundLeftParentStepsClearEvolutionHigherWho We AreAccomplishedResolveRecognizingNext StepsLineageHigher PurposeCelestine Prophecy
Author:James Redfield
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“We're just animals, creatures smart enough and unlucky enough to have figured out we're alive, and we're going to die without ever knowing any purpose. We can pretend all we want and we can wish all we want, but that basic existential fact remains—we can't know.”

KnowsWantEnoughFactsPurposeDiesWishAnimalKnowingAliveCreaturesSmartRemainsExistentialUnlucky
Book:The Tenth Insight: A Pocket Guide (Storycuts)
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“Men speak of blind destiny, a thing without scheme or purpose. But what sort of destiny is that? Each act in this world from which there can be no turning back has before it another, and it another yet. In a vast endless net. Men imagine that the choices before them are theirs to make. But we are free to act only upon what is given. Choice is lost in the maze of generations and each act in the maze is itself an enslavement for it voids every alternative and binds one ever more tightly into the constraints that make a life.”

MenWorldPurposeChoicesLostSpeakGivenDestinyImagineGenerationsThis WorldBlindEndlessAlternativesVoidImagine ThatSchemesConstraintsMazesEnslavementNo Turning Back
Book:The Border Trilogy: Picador Classic
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“A material resurrection seems strange and even absurd except for purposes of punishment, and all punishment which is to revenge rather than correct must be morally wrong, and when the World is at an end, what moral or warning purpose can eternal tortures answer?”

WorldEndsSeemsPurposeAnswersMoralAtheismStrangeMaterialsEternalPositive AtheismRevengePunishmentAbsurdTortureWarningResurrection
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)
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“There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”

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Book:Think and grow rich: Brazilian edition
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“Soul Gathers Force It is possible, when the future is dim, when our depressed faculties can form no bright ideas of the perfection and happiness of a better world,-it is possible still to cling to the conviction of God's merciful purpose towards His creatures, of His parental goodness even in suffering, still to feel that the path of duty, though trodden with a heavy heart, leads to peace.”

WorldFeelsHeartStillsIdeasSoulFormPurposeSufferingForcePathDutyCreaturesGoodnessPerfectionConvictionHeavyFacultyMercifulParentalHeavy HeartBright Ideas
Author:William Ellery Channing
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“Since I've started to star in pictures I have always managed to retain my singularity of purpose when I got into the business, which was to be an artist, as an actor, more than anything else. But to get the certain kind of role you want, you have to be in a certain position in the business and it's dog-eat-dog and it gets very hairy and you can lose your point of view sometimes.”

WantKindSometimesPurposeArtistCertainActorsStarsLosesViewsRolesDogPositionPoint Of ViewSingularity
Author:Bruce Dern
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“They’re a nasty bunch of people. The Riot Club’s sole purpose is to celebrate wealth, elitism, hedonism, and excess - just random acts of destruction and chauvinism, which is interesting because our Prime Minister, our Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Mayor of London were are a part of this club.”

PeoplePurposeWealthInterestingDestructionClubsLondonBunchCelebrateMinistersPrimeExcessSoleNastyPrime MinisterRiotMayorsElitismHedonismChauvinism
Author:Max Irons
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