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Purpose Quotes

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Purpose Quotes

“So-called "natural language" is wonderful for the purposes it was created for, such as to be rude in, to tell jokes in, to cheat or to make love in (and Theorists of Literary Criticism can even be content-free in it), but it is hopelessly inadequate when we have to deal unambiguously with situations of great intricacy, situations which unavoidably arise in such activities as legislation, arbitration, mathematics or programming.”

PurposeLanguageNaturalDealsSituationWonderfulActivityJokesCriticismMathematicsAriseProgrammingCheatMaking LoveRudeLegislationInadequateTheoristsLiterary CriticismIntricacyArbitration
Author:Edsger Dijkstra
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“Either the material order is the whole of being, wherein all transcendence is an illusion, or it is the phenomenal surface - mysterious, beautiful, terrible, harsh, and haunting - of a world of living spirits.... One should... be able to recognize that it is only the latter view that has ever had the power - over centuries and in every realm of human accomplishment - to summon desire beyond the boring limits marked by mortality, to endow the will with constancy and purpose, and to shape imagination towards ends that should not be possible within the narrow economies of the flesh.”

WorldShouldHumansEndsWholeAbleBeautifulSpiritDesirePurposeOrderImaginationViewsEconomyCenturyMaterialsTerribleShapesLimitsIllusionBoringSurfaceFleshMysteriousAccomplishmentRealmsLatterMortalityHarshHauntingTranscendencePhenomenalConstancy
Author:David Bentley Hart
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“To understand most important ideas in psychology, you need to understand how the mind is divided into parts that sometimes conflict. We assume that there is one person in each body, but in some ways we are each more like a committee whose members have been thrown together to do a job, but who often find themselves working at cross purposes.”

WayNeedsMindPersonsHas BeensImportantIdeasSometimesBodyTogetherJobsPurposePsychologyConflictMembersCrossesAssumingThrownDividedCommittees
Author:Jonathan Haidt
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“The word religion literally means, in Latin, to link or bind together; and despite the vast variation in the world's religions, Wilson shows that religions always serve to coordinate and orient people's behavior toward each other and toward the group as a whole, sometimes for the purpose of competing with other groups.”

PeopleWorldMeanSometimesWholeShowsTogetherPurposeGroupsBehaviorDespiteLatinLinksCompetingVariationWilsonCoordinates
Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
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“Richard Dawkins says he can't be sure God doesn't exist. Well, you know what I do when I'm not sure about something? I go on a big crusade about it and write a bunch of books on the subject. No, wait, that sounds more like what someone with a mental disorder would do. That's one of the crazy things about lots of atheists: They're whole movement is supposed to be about being logical and reasonable, yet they tend to rail against religion is a very mindless way that doesn't seem to serve any more purpose than a tantrum. Perhaps I just don't understand their strong faith in not having faith.”

KnowsWayWritingWellsBookWholeBigsSeemsPurposeStrongWaitingSoundCrazySubjectsMovementGoes OnAtheistBunchSupposed To BeNot SureReasonableLogicalDisorderHave FaithRailMindlessCrusadesCrazy ThingsMental DisorderTantrumsAgainst ReligionStrong Faith
Author:Frank J. Fleming
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“The bad player is the one who tries to calculate and play with the odds, as if his game, his life, were one of a large number of games. To do so is at best to succumb to another necessity, the necessity of large numbers. The good player does not fool himself, and accepts that there is exactly one chance, which produces by chance the necessity and even the purpose that he experiences.”

IfsTryingDoePlayPurposeGamesChanceNumbersAcceptingPlayerProduceFoolOddsLarge NumbersOne Chance
Book:The Taming of Chance
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“Oh how swiftly the glory of the world passes away! If only the lives of these men had been as admirable as their learning, their study and reading would have been to good purpose! But how many in this world care little for the service of God, and perish in their vain learning. Because they choose to be great rather than humble, they perish in their own conceit.”

IfsMenWorldLittlesHas BeensCarePurposeReadingStudyThis WorldGloryHumbleVainConceitAdmirablePassing Away
Author:Thomas a Kempis
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“I shift between mediums very frequently. Instead of taking a break from writing, I just write in a different medium or in a different way or for a different purpose, so that I don't actually stop writing - I just go to something else. Like going from a big symphony to a piano piece is great and very refreshing, I find. And then going from that to a big concerto, and then having to go out and play.”

WayWritingDifferentPlayBigsPurposeBreakPiecesMediumsPianoDifferent WaysSymphonyRefreshingTaking A Break
Author:Philip Glass
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“When a thing is bought not for its use but for its costliness, cheapness is no recommendation. As Sismondi remarks, the consequence of cheapening articles of vanity, is not that less is expended on such things, but that the buyers substitute for the cheapened article some other which is more costly, or a more elaborate quality of the same thing; and as the inferior quality answered the purpose of vanity equally well when it was equally expensive, a tax on the article is really paid by nobody: it is a creation of public revenue by which nobody loses.”

WellsUsePurposeLosesQualityCreationTaxesConsequencePaidVanityExpensiveSubstitutesArticlesInferiorsRevenueRemarksBuyersRecommendationsCheapness
Book:Principles of Political Economy, with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy
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“Destroy everything. That's all well and fine, but you got to offer something in it's place. Since I always have a point and purpose to what I do, thats why people accuse me of being calculated. it's the way I am. I always know my next move. I could never conjure up a death wish, this is all I have is life. I don't know what comes next, and frankly I'm in no rush to find out. I don't believe in playing a martyr just for the sheer hell of it. And for something as chidish as Rock 'N' Roll is not on.”

PeopleKnowsWayBelieveWellsMovingPurposeNextWishHellRocksFineOffersDon't BelieveRock N RollSheerMartyrDeath WishNext Move
Author:John Lydon
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“I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each shall stand guard over the solitude of the other. For, if it lies in the nature of indifference and of the crowd to recognize no solitude, then love and friendship are there for the purpose of continually providing the opportunity for solitude. And only those are the true sharings which rhythmically interrupt periods of deep isolation.”

PeopleIfsTwoLyingPurposeOpportunityPeriodsSolitudeHighestTasksCrowdsIndifferenceIsolationProvidingLove And Friendship
Book:Selected Letters
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“While dwelling with pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the condition of himself and his fellow men.”

MenEndsEarthPoliticalPurposeNationsPowerfulNumbersLibertyMoralConditionsFellowsInstitutionsBlessedExcellenceSatisfactionCreatorSuperiorsProportionMost PowerfulPortionsFellow ManDwellingTenureBeneficencePolitical Institutions
Book:John Quincy Adams and American continental empire: letters, papers and speeches
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“We must move from ... the primacy of technology toward considerations of social justice and equity, from the dictates of organizational convenience toward the aspirations ofself realization and learning, from authoritarianism and dogmatism toward more participation, from uniformity and centralization toward diversity and pluralism, from the concept of work as hard and unavoidable, from life as nasty, brutish, and short toward work as purpose and self~fulfillment, a recognition of leisure as a valid activity in itself.”

HardMovingPurposeSocialJusticeTechnologyActivityDiversityConceptsSocial JusticeSelf RealizationRealizationRecognitionFulfillmentAspirationConsiderationLeisureNastyParticipationEquityConvenienceAuthoritarianismUniformityOrganizationalDogmatismPluralismPrimacyCentralizationSelf Fulfillment
Author:Warren G. Bennis
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“Scientific data are not taken for museum purposes; they are taken as a basis for doing something. If nothing is to be done with the data, then there is no use in collecting any. The ultimate purpose of taking data is to provide a basis for action or a recommendation for action. The step intermediate between the collection of data and the action is prediction.”

IfsDoneUseActionPurposeStepsTakenUltimateBasesDataCollectionsMuseumsPredictionsCollectingRecommendations
Author:W. Edwards Deming
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“So long as the great majority of the poor in any country are inert and are laboring without any hope in this world, the whole associated life of that community rests on an equivocal foundation. Its moral and social order is tied to an economic system which starves and mutilates the great majority of the population, and under such conditions its religion necessarily becomes a spiritual drug, administered for the purpose of subduing the popular discontent and relieving the popular misery.”

WorldLongCountryWholeSpiritualPurposeOrderSocialCommunityPoorMoralEconomicConditionsThis WorldDrugFoundationMajorityMiseryPopulationTiedDiscontentEconomic SystemsSocial Order
Author:Herbert Croly
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“People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time-even when hard at work.”

PeopleHardPurposeLaborDirectImpulse
Book:The Modern Library Collection of Greek and Roman Philosophy 3-Book Bundle: Meditations; Selected Dialogues of Plato; The Basic Works of Aristotle
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“I shall borrow two words used for a slightly different purpose by the great demographer Alfred Lotka to distinguish between the two systems of heredity enjoyed by man: endosomatic or internal heredity for the ordinary or genetical heredity we have in common with animals; and exosomatic or external heredity for the non-genetic heredity that is peculiarly our own - the heredity that is mediated through tradition, by which I mean the transfer of information through non-genetic channels from one generation to the next.”

MenMeanTwoDifferentUsedPurposeNextAnimalCommonGenerationsInformationOrdinaryTraditionEnjoyedInternalsTransfersHeredity
Book:The Threat and the Glory: Reflections on Science and Scientists
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“Maybe at the core of me, I'm a survivor, but I don't do it on purpose. Sometimes, in acting of course with your performance, some of your own personal character seeps through. My performance goal has always been to perform for the audience. People pay their hard earned money, and so I always desire to give all of myself in every single scene.”

PeopleGivingSometimesHardCharacterDesirePurposeCoursesGoalPayActingAudienceScenePerformancesCoreSurvivorPersonal Character
Author:Paula Patton
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