Purpose quotes, with sources

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?

The mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.

Work is love made visible.

This above all: to thine own self be true.

It is nothing to die; it is dreadful not to live.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

There is no wealth but life.

We must cultivate our garden.

Thou shalt become what thou art.

You must get your living by loving.

I want to create my own sun for myself.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Nothing is impossible to the man who can will.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

The mould of a man’s fortune is in his own hands.

I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred.

The soul that has no established aim loses itself.

He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.

While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

We are not to be anxious about living, but about living well.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

The man that stands by himself, the universe stands by him also.

There is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort.

Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them.

I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.

An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.

I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grew.

Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.

To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible.

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

Do the Duty which lies nearest thee.

We live to improve, or we live in vain.

What the superior man seeks, is in himself.

See to it that you never do anything unwillingly.

Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.

The one serious and formidable thing in nature is a will.

The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself.

Act, act in the living present! Heart within, and God o’erhead!

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.

The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world.

The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.

Our labour preserves us from three great evils—weariness, vice, and want.

Have I done something for the general interest? Well then, I have had my reward.

Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of thy destiny.

Life finds its wealth by the claims of the world, and its worth by the claims of love.

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.

Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.

Try to do your duty, and you will know at once what you are worth.

Life if well spent, is long.

We gain our freedom when we attain our truest nature.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.