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Purpose Quotes

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Purpose Quotes

“It is the political task of the social scientist — as of any liberal educator — continually to translate personal troubles into public issues, and public issues into the terms of their human meaning for a variety of individuals. It is his task to display in his work — and, as an educator, in his life as well — this kind of sociological imagination. And it is his purpose to cultivate such habits of mind among the men and women who are publicly exposed to him. To secure these ends is to secure reason and individuality, and to make these the predominant values of a democratic society.”

MenMindHumansWellsKindEndsReasonPoliticalPurposeValuesIndividualSocialTermImaginationIssuesTroubleHe ManHabitMen And WomenTasksScientistDemocraticIndividualitySecureVarietyExposedDisplayTranslateEducatorDemocratic SocietySociologicalHabits Of Mind
Book:The Sociological Imagination
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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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“My own doctrine of organization is that any body of people coming together for a purpose (whatever it may be) should consist of persons wholly wedded to said purpose and should consist of nobody else. If the purpose be Cannibalism (preference for Ham a la Capitalism) then nobody but a Cannibal should be admitted. There should be plenty of discussion and disagreement as to how and the means but none whatever as to ends.”

PeopleIfsShouldMayMeanPersonsSaidEndsBodyTogetherPurposeMy OwnCapitalismOrganizationDoctrinePlentyDiscussionPreferenceDisagreementAdvocacyHamComing TogetherCannibalCannibalism
Author:Benton MacKaye
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“The plea of good intentions is not one that can be allowed to have much weight in passing historical judgment upon a man whose wrong-headedness and distorted way of looking at things produced, or helped to produce, such incalculable evil; there is a wide political applicability in the remark attributed to a famous Texan, to the effect that he might, in the end, pardon a man who shot him on purpose, but that he would surely never forgive one who did so accidentally.”

MenWayEndsMightPoliticalPurposeEvilEffectsProduceJudgmentShotsWeightForgivingHistoricalIntentionWidePassingPassingsRemarksPardonGood IntentionsTexanNever Forgive
Book:Thomas H. Benton
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“What is there to understand? The significance of life? How long will it take to understand the significance and the meaning of life? 20 years? 30 years? And the same question will be here in another 20 years, I guarantee you. Until you stop asking that question. When that question is not there, you are there. So that's the reason why you keep asking the question: you do not want the question to come to an end. When that comes to an end, there will not be anybody, left there, to find out the meaning, the purpose and the significance of life.”

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Author:U.G. Krishnamurti
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“Each generation is inclined to educate its young so as to get along in the present world instead of with a view to the proper end of education: the promotion of the best possible realization of humanity as humanity. Parents educate their children so that they may get on; princes educate their subjects as instruments of their own purpose.”

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Book:Democracy and Education: Top American Authors
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“His [Turgot's] first important literary and scholastic effort was a treatise On the Existence of God. Few fragments of it remain, but we are helped to understand him when we learn that he asserted, and to the end of his life maintained, his belief in an Almighty Creator and Upholder of the Universe. It did, indeed, at a later period suit the purposes of his enemies, exasperated by his tolerant spirit and his reforming plans, to proclaim him an atheist; but that sort of charge has been the commonest of missiles against troublesome thinkers in all times.”

FirstsHas BeensImportantEndsSpiritPurposeUniverseBeliefEffortExistenceEnemyPlansPeriodsAtheistCreatorSuitsAll TimeThinkerAlmightyFragmentsMissilesTroublesomeExistence Of GodScholastics
Author:Andrew Dickson White
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“State authority can never be an end in itself; for, if that were so, any kind of tyranny would be inviolable and sacred. If a government uses the instruments of power in its hands for the purpose of leading a people to ruin, then rebellion is not only the right but also the duty of every individual citizen.”

PeopleIfsKindEndsStatesUseHandsGovernmentWould BePurposeIndividualDutyCitizensAuthorityInstrumentsSacredTyrannyRuinsRebellion
Book:Mein Kampf: My Struggle: (Vol. I & Vol. II) - (Complete & Illustrated Edition)
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“Theology recognizes the contingency of human existence only to derive it from a necessary being, that is, to remove it. Theology makes use of philosophical wonder only for the purpose of motivating an affirmation which ends it. Philosophy, on the other hand, arouses us to what is problematic in our own existence and in that of the world, to such a point that we shall never be cured of searching for a solution.”

WorldHumansEndsPhilosophyUseHandsPurposeExistenceWonderSolutionsPhilosophicalTheologyRemoveAffirmationHuman ExistenceContingency
Book:In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays
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“All things considered, I can see no reason to adopt the afterlife hypothesis. I am sure I shall remain in a minority for a long time to come, especially among experiencers, but for me the evidence and the arguments are overwhelming ... We are biological organisms, evolved in fascinating ways for no purpose at all and with no end in mind. We are simply here and this is how it is. I have no self and "I" own nothing. There is no one to die. There is just this moment, and now this, and now this.”

WayMindLongI CanEndsSelfReasonMomentsPurposeDiesAtheismLong TimeEvidenceArgumentAll ThingsPositive AtheismMinoritiesFascinatingNo ReasonOverwhelmingAfterlifeOrganismsHypothesis
Author:Susan Blackmore
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“When the German people trusting to the promises made by President Wilson in his Fourteen Points, laid down their arms in November 1918, a fateful struggle thereby came to an end for which perhaps individual statesmen, but certainly not the peoples themselves could be held responsible. The German nation put up such an heroic fight because it was sincere in its conviction that it had been wrongfully attacked and was therefore justified in fighting. the Peace Treaty of Versailles did not seem to be for the purpose of restoring peace to mankind, but rather to perpetuate hatred.”

PeopleMadeEndsSeemsPurposeFightingIndividualNationsPresidentStruggleMankindArmsPromiseHatredResponsibleConvictionSincereHeroicJustifiedStatesmenNovemberTreatiesFourteenWilsonRestoringVersaillesPeace TreatiesPresident Wilson
Author:Adolf Hitler
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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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“Take away God and religion, and men live to no purpose, without proposing any worthy end of life to themselves.”

MenEndsPurposeReligionWorthyEnd Of Life
Book:The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ...: Containing Fifty Four Sermons and Discourses, on Several Occasions. Together with The Rule of Faith
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“We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who loved them... Our purpose as a nation is firm, yet our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed and lead us to pray... This world he created is of moral design. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end, and the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn... Neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth can separate us from God's love.”

PeopleWorldEndsHumorPoliticalPurposeDiesNationsGriefMoralLordMissingDesignThis WorldPrayingGoodnessAngelHatredAnd LoveTragedyDepthWoundsFirmHeightRemembranceMournGod's LovePolitical Humor
Author:George W. Bush
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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.”

IfsShouldLongDoeIdeasEndsSelfSeemsSpiritualLife IsPurposeOrderFoundAwarenessDevelopmentAmountDegreesConsciousGainsSelf AwarenessSuicideExperimentsMidstSpiritual DevelopmentStandstillCommendable
Author:Carl Jung
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“In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments-which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.”

PeopleHumansMayEndsWholeMomentsStoriesHappensPainLife IsPurposeCausesDifficultHuman BeingsSleepPleasureLevelsViewsExistenceMinutesMissingAspectEmptyFundamentalsAverageDeterminedMeaningfulSignificantThings HappenPlusHappy LifeDevotedMeasurementHuman ExistenceArcsPain And PleasureDifficult LifeSignificant Moments
Book:Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End
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“If you want to be powerful in life you have to enjoy the process. You have to get pleasure out of making the thing that you're making. There has to be that kind of purpose behind it. If your purpose is simply gaining power, if that becomes your end in life then you end up sort of destroying yourself because you lose the sense of detachment that's very necessary.”

IfsWantKindEndsPurposeProcessEnjoyLosesPleasurePowerfulBehindsDestroyingDetachmentGaining PowerDestroying Yourself
Author:Robert Greene
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“In the summer after kindergarten, a friend introduced me to the joys of building plastic model airplanes and warships. By the fourth grade, I graduated to an erector set and spent many happy hours constructing devices of unknown purpose where the main design criterion was to maximize the number of moving parts and overall size. The living room rug was frequently littered with hundreds of metal “girders” and tiny nuts and bolts surrounding half-finished structures. An understanding mother allowed me to keep the projects going for days on end.”

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Author:Steven Chu
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“Art is beauty, and every exposition of art, whether it be music, painting, or the drama, should be subservient to that one great end. As long as nature is a means to the attainment of beauty, so-called realism is necessary and permissable [sic], but it must be realism enhanced by idealism and uplifted by the spirit of an inner life or purpose.”

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Author:Julia Marlowe
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“One should not wrongly reify 'cause' and 'effect,' as the natural scientists do (and whoever, like them, now 'naturalizes' in his thinking), according to the prevailing mechanical doltishness which makes the cause press and push until it 'effects' its end; one should use 'cause' and 'effect' only as pure concepts, that is to say, as conventional fictions for the purpose of designation and communication-not for explanation.”

ThinkingShouldEndsUsePurposeCausesNaturalFictionEffectsCommunicationPureConceptsScientistPressesExplanationConventionalCause And EffectPrevailingDesignation
Book:Basic Writings of Nietzsche
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“I often wish for the end of the wretched remnant of my life; and that wish is a rational one; but then the innate principle of self-preservation, wisely implanted in our natures, for obvious purposes, opposes that wish, and makes us endeavour to spin out our thread as long as we can, however decayed and rotten it may be.”

MayLongEndsSelfAgeDeathPurposeWishPrinciplesObviousRationalOld AgeThreadPreservationWretchedInnateRottenEndeavourSelf PreservationRemnants
Author:Lord Chesterfield
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“We must never put our dreams of success as God's purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. His purpose is that I depend on HIM and in HIS power NOW. His end is the process. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God....His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the 'afterwards' of obedience. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present; if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.”

IfsMayEndsMomentsDreamPurposeProcessRealizingViewsPayAttentionMinutesDependsOppositesObedienceSufficientOur Dreams
Author:Oswald Chambers
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“Furthermore, consider that as one of its most important purposes, stewardship of creation should sustain nature's worshiping capacity. The more I reflect on Scriptures and the more I sense how God thrills to the adoration He receives from all that He has created, the more I realize He has given us the awesome responsibility of caring for His creation so that it can go on praising Him until the end of time.”

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Author:Tony Campolo
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“The chief end of our life is to live in communion with God. To this end the Son of God became incarnate, in order to return us to this divine communion, which was lost by the fall into sin. Through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we enter into communion with the Father and thus attain our purpose.”

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Author:Theophan the Recluse
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“The only way that we can truly have a purpose and an enriching life experience is to do all things in Christ and through the power of Christ. What happens when we're all about doing good works and we're doing that outside of the power of Christ is that we end up getting the glory and the whole point of this deal is that God gets the glory. That verse beautifully illustrates that point.”

WayEndsWholeHappensPurposeChristDealsGloryAll ThingsLife ExperienceVersesGood WorkDoing GoodEnriching
Author:Lance Berkman
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