Greater Purpose Quotes

My father was a man who didn't consider himself learned. He was a man who liked to be a farmer. He enjoyed his dairy farm and felt the calling. So there was a dedication. I was dedicated as a child to the service of God, and so there was this continual centering of a greater purpose than your own. ~ Phil Jackson

It takes courage, humiliating courage, to step aside from your own sovereignty and imagined control and begin looking for the gift that comes unmerited. Yes, I'm talking about grace. Grace by my definition is the gift that comes unearned. In a world of unbelievably able bodies, where new diets are fashioned every day to keep my brand of story away, it is hard to realize you may be living in the middle of the best story ever told. That the story of breast cancer could possibly be a good story? A great story even? It would be easier to shake my fist at the test results and scream that this isn't the right story, but to receive - humbly receive - the story no one would ever want, and know there is goodness in the midst of its horror, is not something I could ever do in my own strength. I simply cannot. That receiving comes from the One who received His own suffering for a much greater purpose than my own. ~ Kara Tippetts

Could illness and pain hold greater purpose than we imagine? ~ Cindee Snider Re

Great teamwork, great results. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

God permits sin to come into human life, but only on behalf of a greater good - namely, freedom - and God overrules sin wherever it appears to threaten God's greater purpose ~ Thomas C. Oden

My desire to live a meaningful life was getting forestalled by the petty, day-to-day demands of all my stuff.
As I stood in my garage, I realized that it was not just that all the stuff created a mess, requiring valuable time to clean up. That was true, but that wasn't the worst of it. I realized it was not the clutter, the over accumulation of things, but rather the things themselves that were taking my attention away from what mattered in my life. Camping gear was getting my attention, not being outside. Tools were taking up my time, not using them to be creative. Toys were distracting me from the fun of playing. My things were not doing what they were meant to do: serve a greater purpose than possession alone. ~ Dave Bruno

After all, a man's life, when all is said and done, should serve some greater purpose than that of a hero in a cautionary tale. ~ Judd Trichter

Walking to the subway, Aomame kept thinking about the strangeness of the world. If, as the dowager had said, we were nothing but gene carriers, why do so many of us have to lead such strangely shaped lives? Wouldn't our genetic purpose – to transmit DNA – be served just as well if we lived simple lives, not bothering our heads with a lot of extraneous thoughts, devoted entirely to preserving life and procreating? Did it benefit the genes in any way for us to lead such intricately warped, even bizarre, lives?

… how could it possibly profit the genes to have such people existing in this world? Did the genes merely enjoy such deformed episodes as colorful entertainment, or were these episodes utilized by them for some greater purpose? ~ Haruki Murakami

[Your] search for meaning in the world ... can only really be fulfilled by the greater purpose that has sent [you] here in the first place. ~ The New Message From God

If anyone uses my decision as a measure for how much or how little I love my son, then that's a person I don't want to know. This is harder than you can imagine, but I'm at peace. This was not a life I was meant to have. Fate stepped in, and he's right where he needs to be. There's a greater purpose for my son, and someday I'll be witness to the remarkable man he becomes. He has more than I could have given him, and what a blessing for that childless couple. ~ Dannika Dark

Strength has a greater purpose. ~ Pavel Tsatsouline

If you have suffered more than your fair share of difficulties in life, perhaps you are being prepared to serve some greater purpose that will require you to be equipped with the wisdom you have acquired through your trials. ~ Robin S. Sharma

Spiritual assets make us more resilient to the trauma and difficult experiences life inevitably throws at us.

Since spiritual assets bring us closer to our Higher Power, we do not face the difficulties alone, and we may find a greater purpose and meaning within the stress & trauma. When we lean on our spiritual assets to get us through, the traumatic event becomes less destructive. Instead, it becomes transformative; we see the difficulties in a new light. ~ Daniel D. Maurer

There's no greater purpose than service to others. ~ Nick Nolte

Do not wait another day to become fully engaged in your life, to learn to love and to forgive, and to live with greater purpose & meaning. ~ Debbie Ford

In regards to climbing the ladder of success, there is a better future, with a greater purpose. One can find it, only if he or she searches for it. ~ Ellen J. Barrier

In performance, we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we're communing together, and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It's not about proving anything. It's about sharing something. ~ Yo-Yo Ma

The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose. ~ Barack Obama

Sensei, why can't I go to school?" ...
"I am truly sorry, my son. I know this is hard but you have another purpose. A greater purpose. Something far more important than playground games and making friends. I wish it wasn't so, but it is. ~ Phillip W. Simpson

Sacrifice only means something when you're willing to give up everything for a greater purpose. ~ Dannika Dark

We may just need society to work for greater purpose either it is to serve people or to give them the feeling of pleasure for living. ~ Santosh Kalwar

I thought you had some kind of greater purpose," Vick says thoughtfully. "Gathering people to bring to the Rising. but you came into the Carving to save yourself and get back to the girl you're in love with. That's all."
"That's all." I agree. He can think less of me if he wants.
"Good enough," Vick says. "Good night. ~ Ally Condie

For others, however, the significance of anxiety in disclosing a fundamental insight into human existence is grasped. At this point their consciences will never allow them to return to a contented absorption in particular entities. Any such attempt to do so will be felt deep down as a betrayal of their truer instincts. Those things which previously were experienced with full satisfaction will now seem shallow, hollow, and somehow meaningless. We come to understand with greater and greater clarity that absorption int the world of things provides no refuge, and one ceases to center one's hope in them. At this critical juncture of human existence two basic alternatives remain: either to dismiss existence in general and man's existence in particular as essentially futile and absurd, or to place one's hope in the actualization of a greater purpose or meaning that is not immediately evident within the realm of empirical data. ~ Stephen Batchelor

I pray to be used in service to a greater purpose higher than my own ~ Oprah Winfrey

No matter where you are, no matter what has happened, there is a greater purpose for everything. ~ J.F. Rogers

To reject any vast group of one's cultural ancestors in the cause of some current theory is not just arrogance; it's posthumous mass murder. It's the same kind of thinking that makes genocide possible. The masses (albeit the dead masses) and the pathetic little lives they lived are irrelevant compared to this greater purpose we have at hand. Write them out of the record. They never existed.
...
One could not judge things by the brief span of one's own lifetime. That was at the core of modern arrogance: only my lifetime counts. My lifetime is 'forever.' Time before it and time after it do not exist. Everything of importance must come to pass in my lifetime. This is what drives the frenzy for change. ~ Tony Hendra

I get so excited when I hear people saying their greater is coming. After all, I'm always telling everyone to find the positive. Yes, your greater is coming, but what are you doing to prepare for it? Are you putting in more time/hours? Are you getting professional help? Are you studying? Are you praying? Are you making room? Are you saving? Are you making positive changes? Or are you just sitting back waiting for this greater? Greater can only be achieved by faith AND works. ~ J'son M. Lee

God will take your story and use it for a greater purpose. ~ Shannon L. Alder

Sometimes singed wings will fly with greater purpose. ~ Tom Althouse

We have to release our plans to realize God's greater purpose ~ Mandy Hale

Life was fleeting, I had learned, and death guaranteed. There had to be some greater purpose to it than the routine existance of daily life. ~ Moazzam Begg

When someone tells you the story of their suffering, they are probably still suffering in some way. No one else gets to decide what that suffering means, or if it has any meaning at all. And we sure as hell don't get to tell someone that God never gives anybody more than they can handle or that God has a plan. We do not get to cut off someone's suffering at the pass by telling them it has some greater purpose. ~ Kerry Egan

I think it's important for each of us to examine the reasons why we have survived our individual challenges, obstacles, and trials. It's not always easy to come to terms with the fact that God always has a greater purpose for us than we can have for ourselves. ~ Stu Jones

I think it's important to have a greater purpose behind modeling. Don't model just because you're pretty and you want to make money. Every girl wants that. You have to stand out from everyone else and on those really hard days, that is really the only thing that will keep you going. ~ Whitney Thompson

No man or woman is an island. To exist just for yourself is meaningless. You can achieve the most satisfaction when you feel related to some greater purpose in life, something greater than yourself. ~ Denis Waitley

We can't control our destiny. We can't go back into our past history and make changes. But we can begin this moment by setting a goal and pursuing it for a better life with a greater purpose. ~ Ellen J. Barrier

If our life has a meaning, an aim, it has nothing to do with our personal happiness, but something wiser and greater. ~ Anton Chekhov

Fate' and 'coincidence' are the mythological derivatives authored by those who refuse to see a 'greater purpose', because such a conclusion would naturally suggest a 'Greater Being'. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

In order for you to acquire luck you must be at the right place, in the right time and show the work of your hands, your labor, and your talent. Luck, according to the creator, is not a happenstance or the result of probabilities or numerical factors. I is a function of you creating your own land and being the ruler of your earthly possessions according to a greater purpose. ~ Celso Cukierkorn

Every person we assassinate dies to serve a greater purpose."
"I'm sure they would be happy if they knew it," Ileni said sarcastically, but her voice sounded weak even to her. "If you would explain it to them, perhaps they would volunteer for your knives. ~ Leah Cypess

Sometimes you can be touched by God, but not healed. Often when this happens, he is using your pain for a greater purpose. ~ Shannon L. Alder

There is a greater purpose to living which is found in the spirit, which is the Being, and that purpose is worth living for. ~ Belsebuub

That's just it, don't you see? I don't want to be taken care of! I don't want be hidden away, a burden! I want to make my own way! To have a greater purpose!' ~ Melanie Benjamin

Sometimes creativity seems wasteful, illogical . . . unless it's done for a greater purpose. ~ Veronica Roth

Adam had plenty of reasons to be indifferent about Gansey's nebulous anxiety, his questioning of why the universe had chosen him to be born to affluent parents, wondering if there was some greater purpose that he was alive. Gansey knew he had to make a difference, had to make a bigger mark on the world because of the head start he'd been given, or he was the worst sort of person out there. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Thomas Jefferson understood the greater purpose of the liberty that our Founding Fathers sought during the creation of our Nation. Although it was against the British that the colonists fought for political rights, the true source of the rights of man was clearly stated in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote that all humans are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights ... It was self-evident to him that denying these rights was wrong and that he and others must struggle to win what was theirs. ~ William J. Clinton

Nothing makes sense anymore, because all the meaning and purpose that life had for them was associated with accumulating, succeeding, building, protecting, and sense gratification. It was associated with the outward movement and identification with form, that is to say, ego. Most people cannot conceive of any meaning when their life, their world, is being demolished. And yet, potentially, there is even deeper meaning here than in the outward movement. ~ Eckhart Tolle

Looking back through life you will find the pleasure of achieving your dreams is always greater than the pain you met while achieving them. ~ Moffat Machingura

Lines are results, do not draw them for themselves ... Lines give birth to lines. Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing ... Make a drawing flow, stopping sometimes, and going on ... Search for the simple constructive forces, line the lines of a suspension bridge. Get the few main lines and see what lines they call out ... Have purpose in the places where lines stop. ~ Robert Henri

It is Satan's purpose to steal the seed of truth from your heart by sending distracting thoughts ... The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is: though they both may have good and evil thoughts, Christ gives His followers strength to select the right rather than the wrong. ~ Billy Graham

The purpose of a fishing trip is not to catch fish. Bringing home meat is important, but it is more symbolic than necessary, as the new morality of catch-and-release has shown. What is important is what happens between people on fishing trips, especially between uncles and nephews, fathers and sons, old men in general and young boys in particular, it is one of the few times men are together without women. ~ Paul G. Quinnett

Travel on your sacred-path. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Some people, well, most people just seem to show up on your life with no clear purpose. Have you noticed that? They're like dust mites. You know they're there, you just don't know what to do about them. ~ Polly Horvath

It is impossible for one who has studied at all the services of the Hebrew people to avoid the faith that they will one day be restored to their historic national home and there enter on a new and yet greater phase of their contribution to the advance of humanity. ~ Warren G. Harding

God's grace is greater than man's sin and can accomplish God's best even when men do their worst. ~ Warren W. Wiersbe

I discovered that Human Nature was not, as I had always supposed, a fixed and unalterable entity, that wars are not caused by a natural urge in men to fight, that ownership of land and factories is not necessarily the natural reward of greater wisdom and energy. ~ Jessica Mitford

Consular cards were not designed to be identification and no treaty recognizes them as such. Legal travelers, visitors and long-term residents carried passports, visas or green cards for that purpose. ~ Elton Gallegly

The God we serve does not seek out the perfect, but instead uses our imperfections and our shortcomings for his greater good. I am humbled by my own limitations. But where I am weak, He is strong. ~ Rick Perry

Unity means not only getting along with one's neighbors, but also having the ability to mobilize one's resources. Unity means being able to move forward together, and to act in tandem with one another. Unity means being able to think as a community, not as individuals, being able to think in terms of the greater good and looking forward beyond the immediate future. ~ Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Tonight, however, Dickens struck him in a different light. Beneath the author's sentimental pity for the weak and helpless, he could discern a revolting pleasure in cruelty and suffering, while the grotesque figures of the people in Cruikshank's illustrations revealed too clearly the hideous distortions of their souls. What had seemed humorous now appeared diabolic, and in disgust at these two favourites he turned to Walter Pater for the repose and dignity of a classic spirit.

But presently he wondered if this spirit were not in itself of a marble quality, frigid and lifeless, contrary to the purpose of nature. 'I have often thought', he said to himself, 'that there is something evil in the austere worship of beauty for its own sake.' He had never thought so before, but he liked to think that this impulse of fancy was the result of mature consideration, and with this satisfaction he composed himself for sleep.

He woke two or three times in the night, an unusual occurrence, but he was glad of it, for each time he had been dreaming horribly of these blameless Victorian works…

It turned out to be the Boy's Gulliver's Travels that Granny had given him, and Dicky had at last to explain his rage with the devil who wrote it to show that men were worse than beasts and the human race a washout. A boy who never had good school reports had no right to be so morbidly sensitive as to penetrate to the underlying cynicism of Swift's delightful fable, and th ~ Margaret Irwin

More planning shall give greater possibility of victory while less planning, lesser possibility of victory. So how about those without planning? ~ Sun Tzu

The purpose of the false self is to defend against pain - not deal with reality ~ Robert W. Firestone

The best gift you can ever give your mentor is to grow. They feed off your growth. I believe that everyone has the seed of success inside, but too many people can't find it in themselves and as a result do not reach their potential. But there are those whose purpose in life is to fertilize the seed of potential in another, who are rewarded by seeing that person grow and blossom before their eyes. Raising up others to a higher level is a mentor's joy and sustenance. ~ John C. Maxwell

The point is, there is no point. Choose your own! ~ Ann Leckie

Why sacrifice the innocent?
Why crucify mankind,
Is it just life, or the deeds of an egocentric God?
Why create a thief, the monster that kills the soul?
What is the purpose of pain and suffering?
Is it just life or the sick mind of an egocentric God? ~ Quetzal

Cease striving and know that I am God. PSALM 46:10 The most profound need of your soul is to be still in the presence of God. Stop wrestling with your troubles or worrying about circumstances - the Lord Almighty is greater than all of them. So calm your soul and focus on His astounding wisdom, ability, and timing. ~ Charles F. Stanley

I refer to the Gospel account in which Christ weeps at the grave of his friend Lazarus. We need to pause and consider the meaning of these tears, for in this very moment there occurs a unique transformation within religion in relation to the long-standing religious approach to death.

Up to this moment the purpose of religion, as well as the purpose of philosophy, consisted in enabling man to come to terms with death, and if possible even to make death desirable: death as the liberation from suffering; death as freedom from this changing, busy, evil world; death as the beginning of eternity. Here, in fact, is the sum total of religious and philosophical teaching before Christ and outside of Christianity - in primitive religions, in Greek philosophy, in Buddhism, and so forth. But Christ *weeps* at the grave of his friend, and in so doing his own struggle with death, his refusal to acknowledge it and to come to terms with it. Suddenly, death ceases to be a normal and natural fact, it appears as something foreign, as unnatural, as fearsome and perverted, and it is acknowledged as an enemy: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ~ Alexander Schmemann

Success always calls for greater generosity - though most people, lost in the darkness of their own egos, treat it as an occasion for greater greed. Collecting boot is not an end itself, but only a means for building an empire. Riches would be of little use to us now - except as a means of winning new friends. ~ Cyrus The Great

You must practice the discipline of a champion before you win the actual contest. The appointment and opportunity must then come to confirm what you have already become. ~ Archibald Marwizi

Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers. ~ Joshua Reynolds

We should know exactly when it is time to reveal our purpose to other people. ~ Sunday Adelaja

Anger harms no one more than he who harbors it. That both bitterness and true happiness are choices that we make, not conditions that fall upon us from the hands of fate. That peace is to be found in the acceptance of things that we are unable to change. That friends and family are the blood of life, and that the purpose of existence is caring, commitment. ~ Dean Koontz

An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters. ~ Jerome Lawrence

It's not for any purpose such as religion, health, or things like that, I just never felt I had the need or want to drink or do drugs. ~ Dane Cook

Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning. ~ Bertrand Russell

When you choose your own way, you lose your happiness ~ Sunday Adelaja

God's grace of forgiveness is greater than all sins. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

All of us have a place in history. mine is clouds. ~ Richard Brautigan

Auroville (City of Dawn) is an 'experimental' township in Viluppuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India near Puducherry in South India. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Richard (since her definitive settling in India called '[The] Mother') and designed by architect Roger Anger. Auroville is meant to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity. ~ Mirra Alfassa

We have tried to substitute mass for purpose. We have tried to regain military potency of defense by making it gigantic, unwieldy, complex. It never works. ~ Peter Drucker

The greater your real strength and power, the quieter it will be exercised. ~ James Russell Lowell

Why should Cornishmen learn Cornish? There is no money in it, it serves no practical purpose, and the literature is scanty and of no great originality or value. The question is a fair one, the answer is simple. Because they are Cornish. ~ Henry Jenner

The American Heart Association reports: There are numerous benefits of daily physical activity: reduces the risk of heart disease by improving blood circulation throughout the body; keeps weight under control; improves blood cholesterol levels; prevents and reduces high blood pressure; prevents bone loss; boosts energy levels; helps manage stress; releases tension; improves the ability to fall asleep quickly and sleep well; improves self-image; counters anxiety and depression and increases enthusiasm and optimism; increases muscle strength; gives greater capacity for other physical activities; provides a way to share an activity with family and friends; establishes good heart-healthy habits in children and counters the conditions ~ Michael Todd Wilson

The temple, in its standing there, first gives to things their look and to men their outlook on themselves. This view remains open as long as the work is a work, as long as the god has not fled from it. It is the same with the sculpture of the god, a votive offering of the victor in the athletic games. It is not a portrait whose purpose is to make it easier to realize how the god looks; rather, it is a work that lets the god himself be present and thus is the god himself. The same holds for the linguistic work. In the tragedy nothing is staged or displayed theatrically, but the battle of the new gods against the old is being fought. The linguistic work, originating in the speech of the people, does not refer to this battle; it transforms the people's saying so that now every living word fights the battle and puts up for decision what is holy and what unholy, what lofty and what flighty, what master and what slave. ~ Martin Heidegger

The transformation of environment has become the purpose of human life; life seems real only insofar as it deals with things. ~ Rudolf Christoph Eucken

Besides, he would know that I did it on purpose. (Serenity)
Honey, I assure you, that man won't think a thing. His mind will be on other matters. You could chop off his head and he wouldn't notice. (Kristen) ~ Kinley MacGregor

I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child's faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.
What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you fell you can't believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God. ~ Flannery O'Connor

I do believe you think what now you speak;
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory;
Of violent birth, but poor validity:
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye; nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,
The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies;
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend:
For who not needs shall never lack a friend;
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.
But, orderly to end where I begun, -
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. ~ William Shakespeare

Around them small animals scampered along knotted cables and flaking vines, chirruping, squealing, venting yellow farts. Everywhere was animation, purpose, hurry. Momentum. ~ Gregory Benford

I want to create no matter what methods I have to use.
And you want to steal no matter what methods you have to use.
Given that which of us is the greater sinner? ~ Yukiru Sugisaki

There is beauty everywhere on earth, but there is greater beauty in those places where one feels that sense of ease which comes from no longer having to put off one's dreams until some improbable future – a future inexorably shrinking away; where the fear that has pervaded one's life suddenly vanishes because there is... nothing to be afraid of. ~ Josef Skvorecky

God prepares leaders with a specific place and task in mind. Training methods are adapted to the mission, and natural and spiritual gifts are given with clear purpose. ~ J. Oswald Sanders

I'm too busy thinking what I'm going to say next to remember what I've said, but my staff tells me I'm sometimes funny. Not always on purpose, though. ~ Jared Polis

it was just fate in the way fate has of providing the destitute with a greater quota of accidents for which nobody can be blamed. ~ Kiran Desai