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Purpose Quotes

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Purpose Quotes

“The world exists, not for what it means but for what it is. The purpose of mushrooms is to be mushrooms, wine is in order to be wine: things are precious before they are contributory. It is a false piety that walks through creation looking only for lessons which can be applied somewhere else. To be sure, God remains the greatest good; but, for all that, the world is still good in itself. Indeed, since He does not need it, its whole reason for being must lie in its own natural goodness; He has no use for it, only delight.”

WorldNeedsMeanDoeStillsReasonWholeUseLyingPurposeOrderNaturalWalksCreationLessonsGoodnessRemainsWineEnvironmentalDelightSomewhere ElsePietyMushrooms
Author:Robert Farrar Capon
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“The great end of all arts is to make an impression on the imagination and the feeling. The imitation of nature frequently does this. Sometimes it fails and something else succeeds.”

DoeArtEndsSometimesFeelingsPurposeImaginationFailingSucceedArt IsImpressionImitation
Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone
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“In America, you are not required to offer food to the hungry or shelter the homeless. There is no ordinance forcing you to visit the lonely, or comfort the infirmed. No where in the Constitution does it say you have to provide clothing to the poor. In fact, one of the nicest things about living here in America, is that you really don't have to do anything for anybody. But when you do, you give meaning and provide soul to the concept of community...and develop a sense of purpose to something greater than one's self.”

GivingDoeSoulSelfFactsAmericaPurposeCommunityPoorGreaterComfortOffersConceptsLonelyConstitutionHungryClothingsShelterHomelessOrdinances
Author:Pope Paul VI
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“The news today about 'Atomic bombs' is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope 'this will ensure peace'. But one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in. Well we're in God's hands. But He does not look kindly on Babel-builders.”

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Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
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“Nature does nothing in vain, and in the use of means to her goals she is not prodigal. Her giving to man reason and the freedom of the will which depends upon it is clear indication of her purpose. Man accordingly was not to be guided by instinct, not nurtured and instructed with ready-made knowledge; rather, he should bring forth everything out of his own resources.”

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Author:Immanuel Kant
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“Locke had illegitimately selected those parts of man he needed for his social contract and suppressed all the rest, a theoretically unsatisfactory procedure and a practically costly one. The bourgeois is the measure of the price paid, he who most of all cannot afford to look to his real self, who denies the existence of the thinly boarded-over basement in him, who is most made over for the purposes of a society that does not even promise him perfection or salvation but merely buys him off.”

MenLooksDoeMadeRealSelfPurposeSocialExistenceNeededPromisePerfectionPaidSalvationDenyContractsProceduresBourgeoisSelectedBasementsReal SelfSocial Contract
Book:Closing of the American Mind
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“When each citizen submits himself to the authority of law he does not thereby decrease his independence or freedom, but rather increases it. By recognizing that he is a part of a larger body which is banded together for a common purpose, he becomes more than an individual, he rises to a new dignity of citizenship. Instead of finding himself restricted and confined by rendering obedience to public law, he finds himself protected and defended and in the exercise of increased and increasing rights.”

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Author:Calvin Coolidge
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“Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.”

IfsKnowsDoeMatterPurposeUniverseOur LivesFieldsWindMachinesFunctionGrassThreadGalaxyBladesWind Blowing
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“Music may appeal to crude and coarse feelings or to refined and noble ones; and in so far as it does the latter it awakens the higher nature and works an effect, though but a transitory effect, of a beneficial kind. But the primary purpose of music is neither instruction nor culture but pleasure; and this is an all-sufficient purpose.”

KindMayDoeFeelingsPurposeCulturePleasureEffectsHigherMusic IsNoblePrimariesAppealsSufficientLatterInstructionBeneficialRefinedCrudeTransitoryCoarse
Book:Works
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“Why does a woman carry a gun? Because, under our system, every citizen has the latitude to act in the absence of police; the latitude to act reasonably, to act immediately, to act in defense of self, to act in defense of another, to act with lethal force, to act with her acquired training and to act not in anger but to respond in purpose. To exercise the protections of that latitude in public policy, public interest and practical safety, all that is demanded of her is that she act reasonably under the circumstances.”

DoeSelfPurposeForceInterestPolicyCitizensCircumstancesExerciseTrainingGunPoliceSafetyProtectionDefenseAbsencePracticalsPublic PolicyPublic InterestLatitude
Author:John Longenecker
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“Painting for me is like a fabric, all of a piece and uniform, with one set of threads as the representational, esthetic element, and the cross-threads as the technical, architectural, or abstract element. These threads are interdependent and complementary, and if one set is lacking the fabric does not exist. A picture with no representational purpose is to my mind always an incomplete technical exercise, for the only purpose of any picture is to achieve representation.”

IfsMindDoePurposePiecesAchievePaintingExerciseElementsCrossesAbstractThreadUniformsFabricRepresentationLackingIncompleteComplementary
Author:Juan Gris
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“What does purpose mean? It means the deepest desire for our short lives to mean something. . . . To speak a language of purpose is to return to first principles and to be able to answer, in plain English, the plain questions of Why? Why should we chip in to help someone else? Why should we defer gratification? Why should we care about the long term? Why should we trust anyone who seems to be limiting our ability to do what we want?”

WantShouldFirstsMeanLongDoeHelpingSeemsCareAbleDesirePurposeSpeakLanguageTermAbilityAnswersPrinciplesReturnIntentionLong TermChipsGratificationShort LifePlain English
Author:Eric Liu
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“In the 'in-itself' there is nothing of 'causal connections', of 'necessity', or of 'psychological non-freedom'; there the effect does not follow the cause, there is no rule or 'law'. It is we alone who have devised cause, sequence, for-each-other, relativity, constraint, number, law, freedom, motive, and purpose; and when we project and mix this symbol world into things as if it existed 'in itself', we act once more as we have always acted- mythologically.”

IfsWorldDoeLawPurposeCausesNumbersEffectsProjectsConnectionsPsychologicalSymbolsMotiveRationalitySequenceConstraintsRelativity
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“I believe that space travel will one day become as common as airline travel is today. I'm convinced, however, that the true future of space travel does not lie with government agencies -- NASA is still obsessed with the idea that the primary purpose of the space program is science -- but real progress will come from private companies competing to provide the ultimate adventure ride, and NASA will receive the trickle-down benefits.”

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Book:Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon
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“Not every child learns for the same purpose, not every child thrives in the same settings and schools. Limiting a child to just one opportunity does nothing more than limit that child's future. The way forward must involve more public charter schools, which offer parents a tuition-free alternative to their neighborhood school.”

WayChildrenDoeSchoolPurposeOpportunityParentEducationOffersLimitsSettingSettingsAlternativesJust OneThriveNeighborhoodCharterTuitionWay ForwardCharter Schools
Author:Rick Perry
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“Recognising that an ostentatious cult of heroism and state service served an important propaganda function for the British elite does not mean, of course, that we should dismiss it as artificial or insincere. All aristocracies have a strong military tradition, and for many British patricians the protracted warfare of the period was a godsend. It gave them a job, and, more important, a purpose, an opportunity to carry out what they had been trained to do since childhood: ride horses, fire guns, exercise their undoubted physical courage and tell other people what to do.”

PeopleShouldMeanDoeImportantStatesJobsPurposeCoursesOpportunityStrongFireChildhoodMilitaryPeriodsExerciseGunTraditionFunctionHorseBritishPropagandaElitesArtificialHeroismWarfareCultAristocracyBritish HistoryInsincereOstentatiousPhysical Courage
Author:Linda Colley
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“It is not surprising that only one medieval state, Venice, long possessed anything clearly identifiavble as a navy in this sense. We shall see that no state in the British Isles attained attained this level of sophistication before the 16th century, and no history of the Royal Navy, in any exact sense of the words, could legitimately begin much before then. This book, which does, is not an institutional history of the Royal Navy, but a history of naval warfare as an aspect of national history. All and any methods of fighting at sea, or using the sea for warlike purposes, are its concern.”

LongDoeBookStatesPurposeFightingLevelsSeaCenturyConcernAspectMethodBritishSurprisingPossessedWarfareRoyalNavyMedievalVeniceSophisticationNavalIsleRoyal NavyNaval Warfare
Author:Nicholas Rodger
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“If we once admit that our life is here for the purpose of race-improvement, then we question any religion which does not improve the race, or the main force of which evaporates, as it were, directing our best efforts toward the sky.... Improvement in the human race is not accomplished by extracting any number of souls and placing them in heaven, or elsewhere. It must be established on earth, either through achievement in social service, or through better children.”

IfsHumansChildrenDoeSoulEarthLife IsPurposeForceHeavenSocialNumbersEffortRaceOur LivesSkyAtheismAchievementPositive AtheismImprovementHuman RaceAccomplishedElsewhereBest EffortSocial Service
Author:Charlotte Perkins Gilman
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“The one function that most gods seem to have in common is to give human existence some ultimate purpose - and, while it is not possible to disprove an ultimate purpose, there does not seem to be any evidence for it. This is not to say, of course, that there is no purpose in life at all: we all make our own purposes as we go through life. And life does not lose its value simply because it it not going to last forever.”

GivingHumansDoeSeemsLastsPurposeValuesCoursesLosesCommonExistenceForeverAtheismEvidenceUltimateFunctionPositive AtheismPurpose Of LifeHuman Existence
Author:Barbara Smoker
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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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“The program grew out of a desire to address a gap identified after 9/11 ... The program does not involve the NSA examining the phone records of ordinary Americans. Rather, it consolidates these records into a database that the government can query if it has a specific lead - phone records that the companies already retain for business purposes.”

IfsDoeGovernmentDesirePurposeCompanyRecordsGrewOrdinaryProgramPhonesAddressesGapsNsaExaminingDatabasesQueries
Author:Barack Obama
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“Where hunger is imposed by external circumstances, the act of starvation remains literal, a tragic biological event that does not serve metaphoric or symbolic purposes. It is only in a country where one is able to choose hunger that elective starvation may come to express cultural conflict or even social protest.”

MayDoeCountryAblePurposeSocialEventsCircumstancesConflictEatingRemainsHungerTragicProtestSymbolicLiteralStarvationMetaphoric
Book:The obsession: reflections on the tyranny of slenderness
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“Culture, which by definition serves no purpose, has now found a role as the consort of business. Right off the bat we have a beached whale, since there is nothing that disdains culture as much as business does. ... In fact, 'corporate culture' is nothing more than the crystallization of the stupidity of a group of people at a given moment.”

PeopleDoeMomentsFactsPurposeCultureFoundGivenBusinessRolesGroupsDefinitionsStupidityCorporateBatsWhalesDisdainCorporate Culture
Author:Corinne Maier
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“The idea of suicide, understandable as it is, does not seem commendable to me. We live in order to gain the greatest possible amount of spiritual development and self-awareness. As long as life is possible, even if only in a minimal degree, you should hang onto it, in order to scoop it up for the purpose of conscious development. To interrupt life before its time is to bring to a standstill an experiment which we have not set up. We have found ourselves in the midst of it and must carry it through to the end.”

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Author:Carl Jung
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“Clearly, unless the Lord chooses to explain Himself to us, which often He does not, His motivation and purposes are beyond the reach of mortal man. What this means in practical terms is that many of our questions - especially those that begin with the word 'why' - will have to remain unanswered for the time being.”

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Book:When God Doesn't Make Sense
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