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Purpose Quotes

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Purpose Quotes

“We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.”

MenNeedsHumansRealPurposeHuman BeingsEconomyWorshipConcernCrisisLaysAncientGoldenFinanceIdolsDictatorshipConsumptionConsumerismLackingExesRuthlessIdolatryOverconsumptionGuiseImbalanceCfsCalves
Author:Pope Francis
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“I am afraid! It is not starving I fear, or talking to people, or even being alone. But I cannot bear to be useless and ineffectual. There must be some meaning to me, if not to my life; there must surely be some purpose that has my name written on it. If this is not so, if I am deceiving myself about this too, then why should I want to become real? What reason have I to live anywhere?”

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Book:A fine and private place: The last unicorn
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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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“In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow-men, he is constantly acting a studied part. The bold and peculiar traits of native character are refined away or softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed good-breeding, and he practises so many petty deceptions and affects so many generous sentiments for the purposes of popularity that it is difficult to distinguish his real from his artificial character.”

MenRealCharacterPurposeDifficultActingExistenceOpinionInfluenceDependsFellowsDeceptionGenerousNativeCivilizedSentimentsPeculiarArtificialTraitsPopularityPettyFellow ManRefinedBreedingPractiseGood Breeding
Book:The Complete Short Stories of Washington Irving: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveler, The Alhambra, Woolfert’s Roost & The Crayon Papers Collections (Illustrated): The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, Old Christmas, The Voyage, Roscoe, The Widow’s Retinue, An Old Soldier, Mountjoy, Don Juan, Woolfert’s Roost, Tales of The Alhambra and many more
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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.”

BelieveDoeStillsIdeasRealGovernmentTodayLyingPurposeI BelieveSpaceCommonCompanyProgressAdventureOne DayBenefitsProgramUltimateConvincedPrimariesObsessedAgencyCompetingAirlineNasaSpace TravelSpace ProgramTrickle DownGovernment Agencies
Book:Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon
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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.”

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Author:Alan Watts
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“Existentialist philosophy recognizes the existence of the individual as the real purpose of human life. The recognition is basically atheistic and it encourages the individual to free himself from the impositions of custom, governmental authority, economic pressures, and cultural inhibitions.”

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Author:Goparaju Ramachandra Rao
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“[On the Internet and activism:] The danger of the Internet is cocooning with the like-minded online - of sending an email or twitter and confusing that with action - while the real corporate and military and government centers of power go right on. In a way, the highest purpose of the Internet is to bring us together for empathy and action. After all, the reflector cells and empathy-producing chemicals in our brains only work when we're physically together with all five senses. You can't raise a baby online.”

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Author:Gloria Steinem
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“Whatever efforts one may make, one must revert to the realization that religion is the real basis of morality; religion is the real and perceptible purpose within us, which alone, can turn aside our attention from things. ... The science of morality can no more teach human beings to be honest, in all the magnificence of this word, than geometry can teach one how to draw.”

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Author:Madame de Stael
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“The leaders we revere and the businesses that last are generally not the result of a narrow pursuit of popularity or personal advancement, but of devotion to some bigger purpose. That's the hallmark of real success. The other trapping of success might be the by product of this larger mission, but it can't be the central thing.”

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Author:Barack Obama
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“Since the real purpose of meditation is to increase our capacity to help others, taking time each day to meditate is not selfish. We have to manage our time and energy in such a way that we can be of maximum benefit to others, and to do this we need time alone to recover our strength, collect our thoughts, and see things in perspective”

WayNeedsRealHelpingPurposeTimeEnergyMeditationStrengthPerspectiveOne DayBenefitsCapacityIncreaseSelfishHelping OthersManageOur TimeEach DayTake TimeOur ThoughtsMaximumMe AloneTime And EnergyTime Of NeedAlone TimeNot Selfish
Book:Eight Steps to Happiness: The Buddhist Way of Loving Kindness
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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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“We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.”

MindRealDesirePurposeExistenceLaborShiningVanityPreservesHypocrisyNeglectEndeavorImaginaryDesire To LiveImaginary Life
Book:Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works
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“The man who works 52 weeks in the year does not do his best in any one week of the year, Daniel Guggenheim, onetime head of the greatest smelting and mining family in America, impressed upon me. Real recreation quickens aspiration. The true purpose of recreation is not merely to amuse, not merely to afford pleasure, not merely to kill time, but to increase our fitness, enhance our usefulness, spur achievement.”

MenYearsDoeRealAmericaPurposePleasureWeekHe ManAchievementIncreaseAspirationLeisureImpressedUsefulnessRecreationSpursMiningTrue Purpose
Author:B. C. Forbes
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“Perhaps there is a reason that there is no fool piece on the chessboard. What action, a fool? What strategy, a fool? What use, a fool? Ah, but a fool resides in a deck of cards, a joker, sometimes two. Of no worth, of course. No real purpose. The appearance of a trump, but none of the power: Simply an instrument of chance. Only a dealer may give value to the joker.”

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Book:Fool
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“There is one Cosmic Essence, all-pervading, all-knowing, all-powerful. This nameless formless essence can be approached by any name, any form, any symbol that suites the taste of the individual. Follow your religion, but try to understand the real purpose behind all of the rituals and traditions, and experience that Oneness.”

TryingRealFormPurposeNamesIndividualPowerfulBehindsKnowingTasteTraditionEssenceSymbolsOnenessRitualCosmicNameless
Author:Swami Satchidananda
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“My real purpose in telling middle-school students stories was to practice telling stories. And I practiced on the greatest model of storytelling we've got, which is "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." I told those stories many, many times. And the way I would justify it to the head teacher if he came in or to any parents who complained was, look, I'm telling these great stories because they're part of our cultural heritage. I did believe that.”

IfsWayBelieveLooksRealStoriesSchoolPurposeParentPracticeTeacherMiddleStudentsModelsStorytellingJustifyHeritageTelling StoriesMiddle SchoolCultural HeritageOdysseyIliad
Author:Philip Pullman
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“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.”

PeopleRealWholeGovernmentPoliticalPurposePoliticsSocialProcessStepsGrowingCrisisSeparationReformPatrioticGapsTemporaryEmergenciesAllegianceSlow Motion
Author:Milton Mayer
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“Barack Obama is a threat to the continued existence of the United States, and he must be impeached, or resign. The real question is, what will we replace his bad policies with? Real patriots understand the need to think ahead, to create a meaningful purpose and direction as we rebuild our nation. We know that the next several generations need a better world to live in, which can only be a Post-Obama World.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldNeedsRealStatesPurposeNextNationsUnitedExistenceUnited StatesGenerationsPolicyThreatMeaningfulBarackPostsPatriotReal QuestionsPurpose And Direction
Author:Kesha Rogers
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