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Purpose Quotes

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Purpose Quotes

“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Anatole France (Illustrated)
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“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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“I would warn against too much of a radical devotion to rationality. Rationality is an illusion, an invented concept, a construct from the mind of man. It is not a property of the universe. Rationality may be a useful tool when it suits our purposes, however, it is merely a measuring stick, calibrated against what we know of the nature of the universe - all of which may or may not be completely inaccurate.”

KnowsMenLifeMindMayPurposeUniverseToo MuchIllusionConceptsToolsPropertySticksDevotionSuitsRadicalRationalityConstructsMeasuring
Author:Derek R. Audette
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“During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalization. At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose.”

IfsKnowsWayMindFirstsAbleSciencePurposeHalfKnowledgeCenturyTasksDetailsAccomplishedDevotedDoubtfulGeneralizationScientific KnowledgeJuncture
Author:Hermann von Helmholtz
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“When we accept any discipline for ourselves, we try to avoid everything except that which is necessary for our purpose; it is this purposefulness, which belongs to the adult mind, that we force upon school children. We say, "Never keep your mind aler.”

TryingMindChildrenSchoolPurposeForceAcceptingDisciplineAdultsPurposefulness
Book:The Oxford India Tagore: Selected Writings on Education and Nationalism
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“When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their main purpose is the elimination or neutralization of the independent individual- the independent voter, consumer, worker, owner, thinker- and that every device they employ aims at turning men into a manipulable animated instrument which is Aristotle's definition of a slave.”

KnowsMenMindActionPurposeIndividualAimIndependentInstrumentsSlaveWorkersDefinitionsConsumersOwnersDevicesVotersThinkerAnimatedEliminationIndependent Voters
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“A man with a half volition goes backwards and forwards, and makes no way on the smoothest road; a man with a whole volition advances on the roughest, and will reach his purpose, if there be even a little worthiness in it. The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - a waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life and having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.”

IfsMenWayMindLittlesWholePurposeGivenHalfAttitudeAchieveHe ManShipsMusclesPurpose Of LifeBackwardsWorthinessStrength Of MindVolitionRudders
Author:Thomas Carlyle
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“It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose.”

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Book:The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners, and Literature. In a Series of Essays
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“The artists of Asia have spiritually realized form, rather than aesthetically invented or imitated form, and from them I have learned that art and nature are mind's Environment within which we can detect the essence of man's Being and Purpose, and from which we can draw clues to guide our journey from partial consciousness to full consciousness.”

MenMindArtFormPurposeArtistConsciousnessEnvironmentJourneyDrawsEssenceGuidesI Have LearnedAsiaClue
Author:Morris Graves
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“Build pockets of stillness into your life. Meditate. Go for walks. Ride your bike going nowhere in particular. There is a creative purpose to daydreaming, even to boredom. The best ideas come to us when we stop actively trying to coax the muse into manifesting and let the fragments of experience float around our unconscious mind in order to click into new combinations. Without this essential stage of unconscious processing, the entire flow of the creative process is broken.”

TryingMindIdeasMotivationalPurposeOrderProcessWalksCreativeStageParticularBrokenEssentialsFlowCombinationBoredomUnconsciousPocketsManifestStillnessCreative ProcessMuseBikeFragmentsFloatsDaydreamingClicksProcessingUnconscious Mind
Author:Maria Popova
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“Hasidism has a tradition that one of man's purposes is to assist God in the work of redemption by "hallowing" the things of creation. By a tremendous heave of his spirit, the devout man frees the divine sparks trapped in the mute things of time; he uplifts the forms and moments of creation, bearing them aloft into that rare air and hallowing fire in which all clays must shatter and burst. Keeping the subsoil world under trees in mind, in intelligence, is the least I can do.”

MenWorldMindI CanMomentsFormSpiritPurposeCan DoFireAirTreeLandCreationDivineTraditionRedemptionUpliftingSparksTrappedClayMute
Book:PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK
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“Women are like that they don't acquire knowledge of people we are for that they are just born with a practical fertility of suspicion that makes a crop every so often and usually right they have an affinity for evil for supplying whatever the evil lacks in itself for drawing it about them instinctively as you do bed-clothing in slumber fertilizing the mind for it until the evil has served its purpose whether it ever existed or no.”

PeopleMindPurposeEvilWomenBornBedDrawingPracticalsAcquireClothingsSuspicionCropsAffinitySlumberFertility
Author:William Faulkner
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“All Art is a gift of the Holy Spirit. When this light shines through the mind of a musician, it manifests itself in beautiful harmonies. Again, shining through the mind of a poet, it is seen in fine poetry and poetic prose. When the Light of the Sun of Truth inspires the mind of a painter, he produces marvellous pictures. These gifts are fulfilling their highest purpose, when showing forth the praise of God.”

MindArtLightBeautifulSpiritPurposeSunProduceInspirePoetFineHolyHighestMusicianArt IsPraiseHarmonyShiningPainterHoly SpiritProsePoeticFulfillingMarvellousShining Through
Author:Abdu'l-Bahá
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“What I have said may serve to recommend mathematics for acquiring a vigorous constitution of mind; for which purpose they are as useful as exercise is for procuring health and strength to the body.”

MindMaySaidBodyPurposeExerciseConstitutionMathematicsVigorousHealth And Strength
Book:An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning,: In a Letter from a Gentleman in the City to His Friend in Oxford..
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“Cursed in earth and subdued by death, man found himself beset by time, and his instincts put to the test. Only then, he realized that with love he could survive, and that for a certain purpose he would toil. For those whom my love can not immune from death, are dedicated these paintings, in the hope they may express in drawing the reality of a resonant mind.”

MenMindMayRealityEarthPurposeCertainFoundPaintingSurvivalTestsInstinctDrawingDedicatedCan NotToilImmuneCursed
Author:Ala Bashir
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“Looking at your life as a debt may seem the dreariest view of things at a distance; but it cannot really be so. What makes life dreary is the want of motive; but once beginning to act with the penitential, loving purpose you have in your mind, there will be unexpected satisfactions--there will be newly-opening needs--continually coming to carry you on from day to day. You will find your life growing like a plant.”

WantLifeNeedsMindMaySeemsPurposeViewsGrowingDistancePlantSatisfactionDebtOpeningMotiveUnexpectedDay To DayDreary
Book:The Works of George Eliot in Twelve Volumes: Scenes of clerical life - Life of George Eliot
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“The longer I live, the more it grieves me to see man, who occupies his supreme place for the very purpose of imposing his will upon nature, and freeing himself and his from an outrageous necessity--to see him taken up with some false notion, and doing just the opposite of what he wants to do; and then, because the whole bent of his mind is spoilt, bungling miserably over everything.”

MenWantMindWholePurposeTakenOppositesNotionSupremeGrievingBentOutrageousImposingSpoilt
Book:Maxims and Reflections
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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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“The real reason why human life can be so utterly exasperating and frustrating is not because there are facts called death, pain, fear, or hunger. The madness of the thing is that when such facts are present, we circle, buzz, writhe, and whirl, trying to get the I out of the experience... Sanity, wholeness and integration lie in the realisation that we are not divided, that man and his present experience are one, and that no separate I or mind can be found .... [Life] is a dance, and when you are dancing, you are not intent on getting somewhere. The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance.”

MenTryingMindHumansRealReasonFactsPainLife IsLyingPurposeFoundMadnessDancingHungerCirclesHuman LifeReason WhyDividedSanityWholenessIntegrationFrustratingBuzzRealisation
Author:Alan Watts
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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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“In the search for meaning we must not forget that the gods (or God, for that matter) are a concept of the human mind; they are the creatures of man, not vice versa. They are needed and invented to give meaning and purpose to the struggle that is life on Earth, to explain strange and irregular phenomena of nature, haphazard events and, above all, irrational human conduct. They exist to bear the burden of all things that cannot be comprehended except by supernatural intervention or design.”

MenGivingMindHumansMatterEarthPurposeForgetStruggleAtheismEventsDesignStrangeBearsNeededCreaturesConceptsAll ThingsVicesBurdenPositive AtheismHuman MindIrrationalInterventionVice VersaSearch For MeaningHaphazard
Author:Barbara Tuchman
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“The purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader's mind as differing from, say, the purpose of oratory or philosophy which respectively leave people in a fighting or thoughtful mood.”

PeopleMindPhilosophyPurposeFightingFictionEffectsReaderMoodAppealsThoughtfulLingeringOratory
Book:The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works
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“A life without an objective is much like a ship at sea with no port in mind. It drifts with the waves or storms, or with the whim of the captain. They are tempted to ask, amidst the battles of life, "Is the struggle worth-while?" That attitude lessens the joy of living. They who say that there is no purpose in life are not unhappy, but become dangerous to themselves and others, for they have no safe guide for their actions. Indeed, life has not objective save physical satisfactions, it is empty and valueless.”

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Author:John Andreas Widtsoe
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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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“Mind is the creator of everything. You should therefore guide it to create only good. If you cling to a certain thought with dynamic will power, it finally assumes a tangible outward form. When you are able to employ your will always for constructive purposes, you become the controller of your destiny.”

IfsShouldMindAbleFormPurposeCertainDestinyPowerAssumingCreatorGuidesOur DestinyYour DestinyConstructiveTangibleWill PowerPower Of The MindPower Of ThoughtControllers
Book:The Law of Success: Using the Power of Spirit to Create Health, Prosperity, and Happiness
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“Zen purposes to discipline the mind itself, to make it its own master, through an insight into its proper nature. This getting into the real nature of one's own mind or soul is the fundamental object of Zen Buddhism. Zen, therefore, is more than meditation and Dhyana in its ordinary sense. The discipline of Zen consists in opening the mental eye in order to look into the very reason of existence.”

MindLooksRealSoulReasonEyePurposeOrderNatureExistenceMeditationObjectsMastersBuddhismDisciplineOrdinaryFundamentalsInsightOpeningZen BuddhismDhyana
Book:An Introduction to Zen Buddhism
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“The liberty of the press would be an empty sound, and no man would venture to write on any subject, however, pure his purpose, without an attorney at one elbow and a counsel at the other. From minds thus subdued by the fear of punishment, there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason.”

MenWritingMindHumansReasonWould BeLawPurposeSoundLibertyIssuesSubjectsMediaCrimeGeniusPureSpeechEmptyConstitutionPressesPunishmentEmpiresVenturePersecutionAttorneyElbowsHuman Reason
Author:Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
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