Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Os Guiness

A sense of purpose and fulfillment is the single strongest issue flowing out of the quest for meaning… The end of the quest for meaning is the beginning of the journey of faith. Indeed, nothing better illuminates the entire journey of life and faith, and in particular the special challenge of finishing them well, than the issue of purpose.

Beginning | Better | Challenge | Faith | Fulfillment | Journey | Life | Life | Meaning | Nothing | Purpose | Purpose | Sense |

David Hockey

Neither existing nor evolving is a purpose – these are simply states of affairs. Demonstrating a trend toward complexity does not demonstrate purpose – it demonstrates only what happens when something new is added to something old. Nor does the ability to learn then apply what has been learned prove that life has a purpose.

Ability | Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | Learn |

Emmet John Hughes

He must summon his people to be with him – yet stand above, not squat beside them. He must question his own wisdom and judgment – but not too severely. He must hear the opinions and heed the powers of others – but not too abjectly. He must appease the doubts of his critic and assuage the hurts of the adversary – sometimes. He must ignore their views and achieve their defeat – sometimes… He must respect action – without becoming intoxicated with his own. He must have a sense of purpose inspiring him to magnify the trivial event to serve his distant aim – and to grasp the thorniest crisis as if it were the merest nettle. He must be pragmatic, calculating, and earthbound – and still know when to spurn the arithmetic of expediency for the act of brave imagination, the sublime gamble with no hope other than the boldness of his vision

Action | Boldness | Critic | Defeat | Hope | Imagination | Judgment | People | Purpose | Purpose | Question | Respect | Sense | Vision | Wisdom | Respect | Crisis |

David Hockey

We have no more, and no less, purpose for living than life itself has. Thus, whatever we select to be a purpose for humans, must be a purpose that applies to all living entities, including those beyond our planet… “meta-purpose” making decisions both moral and beneficial to all forms of life.

Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose |

Kenkō Hōshi, Buddhist name of Urabe Kaneyoshi

It is desirable for a ruler that no man should suffer from cold and hunger under his rule. Man cannot maintain his standard of morals when he has no ordinary means of living.

Hunger | Man | Means | Rule |

Joseph Jaworski

I discovered that people are not really afraid of dying; they’re afraid of not ever having lived, not every having deeply considered their life’s higher purpose, and not ever having stepped into that purpose and at least tried to make a difference in this world.

Life | Life | People | Purpose | Purpose | World | Afraid |

Carl Jung, fully Carl Gustav Jung

The serious problems in life… are never fully solved. If ever they should appear to be so, it is a sure sign that something has been lost. The meaning and purpose of a problem seems not to lie in its solution but in our working at it incessantly.

Life | Life | Meaning | Problems | Purpose | Purpose |

Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller

Sick or well, blind or seeing, bond or free, we are here for a purpose and however we are situated, we please God better with useful deeds than with many prayers or pious resignation. The temple or church is empty unless the good life fill it. The altar is holy if only it represents the altar of our heart upon which we offer the only sacrifices ever commanded – the love that is stronger than hate and the faith that overcometh doubt.

Better | Church | Deeds | Doubt | Faith | God | Good | Hate | Heart | Life | Life | Love | Pious | Purpose | Purpose | Resignation | Deeds | God |

Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso NULL

I believe the purpose of life is happiness. In today’s world being happy is inseparable from being responsible. We need to temper the extremes of our personal nature so that we can realize oneness with the universe. We must keep our destructive qualities from outweighing our constructive qualities.

Happy | Life | Life | Nature | Need | Oneness | Purpose | Purpose | Qualities | Temper | Universe | World |

Glenn W. Lehrer

Crystals are like concentrated knowledge pressed into crystalline form. They are the culmination of life force coming together in time and space. The crystal shows nature’s urge for symmetry and perfection. Our life purpose is like that – purposeful curiosity and imagination yearning for balance and beauty.

Balance | Beauty | Curiosity | Force | Imagination | Knowledge | Life | Life | Nature | Perfection | Purpose | Purpose | Space | Time |

Carl Jung, fully Carl Gustav Jung

As far we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Darkness | Existence | Light | Purpose | Purpose |

James Russell Lowell

God is in all that liberates and lifts; in all that humbles, sweetens, and consoles. A mystery of purpose gleaming through the secular confusion of the world, whose will we darkly accomplish, doing ours.

God | Mystery | Purpose | Purpose | Will | World |

Majjhima Nikāya

The purpose of the Holy Life does not consist in acquiring alms [or] honor... nor in gaining morality [or] concentration... That unshakable deliverance of the heart: that indeed, is the object of the Holy Life, that is its essence, that is its goal.

Alms | Heart | Honor | Life | Life | Morality | Object | Purpose | Purpose |

J.W. Marriott, Jr., fully John Willard "Bill" Marriott, Jr.

Truly great companies maintain a set of core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices continually adapt to a changing world.

Business | Purpose | Purpose | World | Business |

Philip Novak

[On Judaism] Life’s purpose is to be found in the healing of the world so that the world may then reflect, for the good of all, the radiance of its creative source.

Good | Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | World |

Philip Novak

Life’s purpose is to be found in the healing of the world so that the world may then reflect, for the good of all, the radiance of its creative source.

Good | Life | Life | Purpose | Purpose | World |

Alice Hegan Rice, also known as Alice Caldwell Hegan

Only when we feel through all our vicissitudes some unfathomable purpose runs, and that by meeting life nobly and courageously we can co-operate in the fulfillment of that purpose, do we find peace.

Fulfillment | Life | Life | Peace | Purpose | Purpose | Vicissitudes |