Quotes about Purpose
I have chosen icons because they are created for the sole purpose of offering access, through the gate of the visible, to the mystery of the invisible. Icons are painted to lead us into the inner room of prayer and bring us close to the heart of God.
— Henri Nouwen
If God wants to give you more than you are asking, would you rather have what you are asking or what God wants to give?
— Henry Blackaby
All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.
— Henry David Thoreau
Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
— Henry David Thoreau
I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one.
— Henry David Thoreau
In my opinion, the sun was made to light worthier toil than this.
— Henry David Thoreau
If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of pottage. I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.
— Henry David Thoreau
I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.
— Henry David Thoreau
I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about
— Henry David Thoreau
Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.
— Henry David Thoreau
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
— Henry David Thoreau
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around. Nothing can be more useful to a man than the determination not to be hurried.
— Henry David Thoreau