Meaningful Life Quotes

Forgiveness is not an easy chore to undertake, nor is it for the weak. I forgive you, God, for leaving me out here to figure out all of this on my own. Yet forgiveness is the daily minimum requirement for a healthy, fulfilling, and meaningful life. I forgive my mind for believing that what was is what always has to be. ~ Iyanla Vanzant

Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life ~ Susan David

What a vicious circle we can put ourselves in: we have come to accept the notion of "fix me first," when part of the essential fixing we all need is to be compassionately involved with others. ~ Bo Lozoff

What are the things that make adults depressed? The master list is too comprehensive to quantify (plane crashes, unemployment, killer bees, impotence, Stringer Bell's murder, gambling addictions, crib death, the music of Bon Iver, et al.) But whenever people talk about their personal bouts of depression in the abstract, there are two obstructions I hear more than any other. The possibility that one's life is not important, and the mundane predictability of day-to-day existence. Talk to a depressed person (particularly one who's nearing midlife), and one (or both) of these problems will inevitably be described. Since the end of World War II, every generation of American children has been endlessly conditioned to believe that their lives are supposed to be great -- a meaningful life is not just possible, but required. Part of the reason forward-thinking media networks like Twitter succeed is because people want to believe that every immaterial thing they do is pertinent by default; it's interesting because it happened to them, which translates as interesting to all. At the same time, we concede that a compelling life is supposed to be spontaneous and unpredictable-- any artistic depiction of someone who does the same thing every day portrays that character as tragically imprisoned (January Jones on Mad Men, Ron Livingston in Office Space, the lyrics to "Eleanor Rigby," all novels set in affluent suburbs, pretty much every project Sam Mendes has ever conceived, etc.) If you know ~ Chuck Klosterman

Like the river, keep on flowing. ~ Avijeet Das

At the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the blessings that expresses itself by becoming the blessing. ~ Ann Voskamp

Having knowledge of the Bible is essential to a rich and meaningful life. ~ Billy Graham

When the peasants and their song had vanished from his sight and hearing, a heavy feeling of anguish at his loneliness, his bodily idleness, his hostility to this world, came over him ... It was all drowned in the sea of cheerful common labor. God had given the day, God had given the strength. Both day and strength had been devoted to labour and in that lay the reward ... Levin had often admired this life, had often experienced a feeling of envy for the people who lived this life, but that day for the first time ... the thought came clearly to Levin that it was up to him to change that so burdensome, idle, artificial and individual life he lived into this laborious, pure and common, lovely life. ~ Leo Tolstoy

In your eyes there are countless stars yet to be discovered. Why will I look for another sky? ~ Avijeet Das

All I really need to know ... I learned in kindergarten. ~ Robert Fulghum

Values are principles and ideas that bring meaning to the seemingly mundane experience of life. A meaningful life that ultimately brings happiness and pride requires you to respond to temptations as well as challenges with honor, dignity, and courage. ~ Laura Schlessinger

The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life. ~ Robert Penn Warren

I like to start slowly, and then ease up as the day progresses. ~ Fennel Hudson

We're constantly reminded that this precious life is what you make of it. But what if you're not sure of what you want to make it into?
On the one hand there are those resolute in their life's agenda and objectives, often set by the scriptural society they choose to adhere to, or one passed down from parents and family. They know what they want because they allow themselves to be told what is important, to be guided by those who have gone before. A proven formula maybe, or an unrealistic dream. Is true success in ones life fairly measured against someone else's achievements, should we use those achievements of others as our own check list? Surely we will find happiness just as they have, or not, at the end of it.
The opposite end of the spectrum sees the tragic dreamers, unable to answer the question of why they're even here, the absence of knowing what their true calling is drives them close to insanity, desperate to live a meaningful life but haunted by the inability to see what constitutes as such. Often turning to artistic release to try and express themselves, their own high standards against which they measure themselves tragically, often fatally high.
I find myself somewhere in the middle. I know what society expects but I don't agree with all of it. Much I have to adhere to simply to exist. Fortunately an education grants me a career not a job, that in the current world gives me choices that others do not and I am thankful. But I'm concious that the wel ~ Raven Lockwood

The paramount terror that plagues humankind is to live a meaningless life of an exile, an incomplete person whom fails to experience the rapture of living in an astonishing manner. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

But most Canadians have recognized to a greater or lesser extent that despite much of the so-called progress of the affluent society, essential ingredients to a meaningful life seem to be either entirely lacking, or at best, difficult to grasp. ~ Alex Campbell

Be an artist, in whatever little faculty possible.
For the Earth, without 'Art' is just 'Eh ~ Jasleen Kaur Gumber

Just as the good life is something beyond the pleasant life, the meaningful life is beyond the good life. ~ Martin Seligman

Some would look at Emily's life and think that a child born with Down's syndrome has little hope for a meaningful life. Throw in the diagnosis of leukemia and that little hope turns into no hope whatsoever.
I disagree.
Emily's life, with all its imperfections, had great meaning. Because of how many people she touched, I realize that we are far more than what we can accomplish. We are the very thumbprints of God. ~ Matt Patterson

Life is just too beautiful if meaning is attached to it, and useless when meaningless!! ~ Tripta Arora

I have had a love affair with Wake Forest since my undergraduate days, but I didn't realize until many years later what I had truly learned at Wake Forest, both in and out of the classroom, about the meaning of a productive and meaningful life, ~ Arnold Palmer

Friends are an indispensable part of a meaningful life. They are the ones who share our burdens and multiply our blessings. A true friend sticks by us in our joys and sorrows. In good times and bad, we need friends who will pray for us, listen to us, and lend a comforting hand and an understanding ear when needed. ~ Beverly LaHaye

If only I could dive deep into your thoughts and know what you are thinking right now. ~ Suyasha Subedi

Life goes on without regard to our whims. What we make of life is what counts, how we address the challenges in our lives determines our respective levels of personal accomplishment and happiness. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

The quality of our life is directly proportional to the quality of our thoughts. ~ Avijeet Das

Life is painful to be meaningful. ~ Kedar Joshi

I use the term happiness to refer to the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one's life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile. ~ Sonja Lyubomirsky

People cannot escape the looming specter of a deathwatch and the imposing emptiness that comes with the termination of their existence. People resist going silently into the night. We seek to howl at the moon and make known our search for a diagrammatic overture that voices our unquantifiable existence. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

An easy life is rarely meaningful and a meaningful life rarely easy. ~ Oliver North

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

If you want a meaningful life for yourself don't ask "What can the world offer to me?" but "What can I offer to the world? ~ Bangambiki Habyarimana

There is nothing more meaningful, life-giving, or lovely than home ~ Jen Hatmaker

Our ability to detect and measure the passage of time is burdensome. The conception and sensation of time bears down upon all of us. It weighs us down; it compresses our souls. There is a variety of ways to escape the dull passage of time or the fearfulness of our accelerating march towards death. We must choose our mechanisms for dealing with the inexorability of time and our finiteness. We can fill our void with work or pleasure, laughter or pain, and fretfulness or courage. We can seek a sense of purposefulness or acknowledge the meaninglessness of life. We can seek to escape the drudgery and pain of life through alcohol, drugs, or pleasure seeking, or by working to support our families and create artistic testaments to our worldly existence. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Living is a creative and active process of diligent learning that entails industrious human action, attentive awareness, and thoughtful reflection. Learning is one facet of human beings innate capacity that can provide a sense of worthiness to human life. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Deep human connection is ... the purpose and the result of a meaningful life - and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity, and humanity. ~ Melinda Gates

Besides, before contemplating starting a new life, you need to make something of this one. ~ Maude Julien

Artistes are true muses of each other! ~ Avijeet Das

Telling the truth is the slow, mundane, difficult route to a meaningful life. Anything else is cheating. ~ Donald Miller

A meaningful life - this is what we look for in art, in its smallest dewdrops as in its unleashing of the tempest. We are at peace when we have found it and uneasy when we have not. ~ Bjornstjerne Bjornson

We have made a problem for ourselves by confusing the intelligible with the fixed. We think that making sense out of life is impossible unless the flow of events can somehow be fitted into a framework of rigid forms. To be meaningful, life must be understandable in terms of fixed ideas and laws, and these in turn must correspond to unchanging and eternal realities behind the shifting scene. But if this what "making sense out of life" means, we have set ourselves the impossible task of making fixity out of flux. ~ Alan W. Watts

Silence is truly eloquent! ~ Avijeet Das

We have a fundamental imperative in our lives to matter to others, to serve others, and to support each other in mattering more. ~ Tom Hayes

The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living. The meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness. ~ Martin Seligman

With nothing meaningful in life, nothing is interesting. Enter boredom. A bored man even longs for longing. He has time to fill, but there is nothing compelling to do. ~ Daniel Klein

The only meaningful life is that which is deepened by carrying through these commitments, living through the dead periods in order to lay the foundations for the creative ones. ~ Charles Taylor

To be free is to have achieved your life. ~ Tennessee Williams

How do we create beauty in a broken world? How do we create a view of sustainability in an economy that is crashing? How do we reconfigure our lives, how do we pick up the pieces and create a meaningful life? So, yes, we have a different form of leadership but the questions remain the same. ~ Terry Tempest Williams

To love one another means to have compassionate concern and care for all people. It is to know the value of living a good life, and of adding value to others life. It produces a meaningful life! ~ Joan Jessalyn Cox

When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you've had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered. ~ James C. Collins

If even one person says that I inspired him or her to become a better version of himself or herself then I will feel happy.

But wearing branded clothes, holding high designations, and possessing cool visiting cards don't allure me.

That's not how legends are made! ~ Avijeet Das

I used to think of work as a bad word. Back in the corporate world, work was something that prevented me from living, something that kept me from feeling satisfied or fulfilled or passionate. Even the word itself carried with it a negative connotation. Work - bluck! When I left the corporate world, I swore off the word altogether. Noun, verb, adjective - I avoided all of work's iterations. I no longer 'went to work,' so that was easy to remove from my vocabulary. In fact, I no longer 'worked' at all; instead I replaced the word with a more specific verb: I would 'write' or 'teach' or 'speak' or 'volunteer,' but I refused to 'work.' I no longer went to the gym to 'workout'; instead I 'exercised.' And I stopped wearing 'work clothes'; I chose instead to wear 'dress clothes.' And I avoided getting 'worked up,' preferring to call it 'stress' or 'anxiety.' And I didn't bring my car to the shop to get 'worked on,' deciding instead to have my vehicle 'repaired.' Hell, I even avoided 'handiwork' 92 and 'housework,' selecting their more banal alternatives. Suffice it to say, I wanted nothing to do with the word. I wanted it not only stricken from my lexicon, but from my memory, erasing every shred of the thing that kept me from pursuing my dream for over a decade. But after a year of that nonsense, I realized something: it wasn't the word that was bad; it was the meaning I gave to the word. It took removing the word from my everyday speech for a year to discover that it wasn't a bad w ~ Joshua Fields Millburn

Some of the homes that have been built in the last 10 years just appall me. Why do humans need huge homes? I was born poor and I didn't know you bought clothes at anything but the Goodwill until I went to college. Some of our mentality about what it means to have a good life is, I think, not going to help us in the next 50 years. We have to think through how to choose a meaningful life where we're helping one another in ways that really help the Earth. ~ Elinor Ostrom

A person must move beyond guilt and unexamined thoughts and motives in order to discover a purpose for living vibrantly. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

There is nothing wrong with being on the bottom once in awhile, but don't stay there, women! New positions will give you new perspective, and new perspective will give you new experiences, and new experiences will give you a meaningful life. ~ Toni Sorenson

" ... Grateful living makes life meaningful and full of joy." ~ David Steindl-Rast

To find the meaning of life, enjoy the journey, the beauty of the nature, the glint of a dew drop, the warmth of the morning sun, the songs of the wind, and smiles of flowers. These are all there to make your journey worthwhile and make your life meaningful. ~ Debasish Mridha

Who you are has little to do with how you look. You are what you know, what you can do, the impact you have delivered, and the collection of experiences in your meaningful life. ~ Jamie Le Fay

In front of the unfathomable vastness of the universe, we humans are insignificant particles of protoplasmic substance. But that's precisely what makes us humans – we make sense out of chaos, and in that sense we produce meaningfulness. And we then pour that meaningfulness in our lives, which then outpours into the world. Thus, we provide meaning to a meaningless world – we provide meaning to a meaningless universe. ~ Abhijit Naskar

I work every day to live my life in such a way that when I take my last breath, I will be satisfied I made a difference and I was an inspiration; that I left something behind that will be meaningful to society; I did not shame my family, disappoint my friends or ruin my good name. ~ Carlos Wallace

A meaningful life is not a popularity contest. Do what in your heart you believe to be the right thing, and you may or may not get immediate approval from the world. Do it anyway. ~ Marianne Williamson

We have a new generation of very rich people who want to do more with their money than buy a lot of expensive toys. They want to live meaningful lives. ~ Peter Singer

When you don't get love, learn to love yourself more! ~ Avijeet Das

We seek not for forgiveness, but the freedom and time to do more than 'exist'. ~ Fennel Hudson

No person can claim to be anything more or anything less than his or her individual assimilation of a lifelong symposium of inimitable physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual occurrences. Simply put, we each place our own individualized stamp upon the meaning of life. How we live, how we struggle, and how we die reflects what life means to each of us. We are all students of life, we are a product of what we pay attention to, what we observe, and experience, and what subjects arrest our minds. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Take all those things that would propose to be important, and weigh them upon the scale of your soul. Asking how much each thing actually impacts, not just the moment, but the years ahead. Discard all that is trivial masquerading as significant, and reserve your days for those things that truly matter. ~ L.M. Browning

'Recovery' is an idea whose time has come. At its heart is a set of values about a person's right to build a meaningful life for themselves, with or without the continuing presence of mental health symptoms. ~ Geoff Shepherd

To love, to be loved, and to be useful: these are the most important elements in a happy, meaningful life, and they can be achieved anywhere. ~ Syrie James

Lead a meaningful life. We are here for a purpose. To make this world a beautiful place. ~ Avijeet Das

The great lesson I get from 'Moby-Dick' is that when the times are bad, when there is great foreboding, there are still ways to go about living. It's through Ishmael that I find a kind of overall cosmic approach to a meaningful life in this meaningless world. ~ Nathaniel Philbrick

It is better to have a short meaningful life than to have a long meaningless one. ~ Alvin Conway

We usually forget that apart from making a living on this earth, human beings live in societies and these societies have cultures. It is only through having cultures that mankind on this earth has an ordered and meaningful life. Music and drama are two of the many important manifestation of a culture. They are important because they represent the expressions emanating from the power of human artistic creativity ~ Tunku Abdul Rahman

Each person you meet has something to teach you. Learn from each person! ~ Avijeet Das

Self-giving is the only pathway to a meaningful life in this world and is the habit of heart that leads us into the world to come, but it is the opposite of the egocentric grasping we see increasingly around us. ~ Collin Raye

But beyond a basic minimum, the relationship between income and happiness is slight. Research bears out Maslow's analysis that the higher needs are love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. The most significant determinants of happiness are strong and rewarding personal relationships, a sense of belonging to a community, being valued by others and living a meaningful life. These are precisely the things in which religion specialises: sanctifying marriage, etching family life with the charisma of holiness, creating and sustaining strong communities in which people are valued for what they are, not for what they earn or own, and providing a framework within which our lives take on meaning, purpose, even blessedness. ~ Jonathan Sacks

A person must claim the meaning behind his or her existence. How we live is our final testament to what we believed in and our journey through the corridor of time determines our decisive character. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Christians might say that you can't live a more meaningful life without Jesus. Well, that's absolutely not true. You can. You can enjoy a sunrise whether you know Jesus or not. ~ Donald Miller

The problem may be a literary one: we are given a single story line about what makes a good life, even though not a few who follow that story line have bad lives. We speak as though there is one good plot with one happy outcome, while the myriad forms a life can take flower - and wither - all around us.
Even those who live out the best version of the familiar story line might not find happiness as their reward. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I know a woman who was lovingly married for seventy years. She has had a long, meaningful life that she has lived according to her principles. But I wouldn't call her happy; her compassion for the vulnerable and concern for the future have given her a despondent worldview. What she has had instead of happiness requires better language to describe. There are entirely different criteria for a good life that might matter more to a person - honor, meaning, depth, engagement, hope. ~ Rebecca Solnit

Chase your dreams! Never doubt your capabilities to come out a winner. Struggle hard but never give up the chase to achieve your dreams! ~ Avijeet Das

Because instant and credible information has to be given, it becomes necessary to resort to guesswork, rumors and suppositions to fill in the voids, and none of them will ever be rectified, they will stay on in the readers' memory. How many hasty, immature, superficial and misleading judgments are expressed every day, confusing readers, without any verification. The press can both simulate public opinion and miseducate it. Thus we may see terrorists heroized, or secret matters, pertaining to one's nation's defense, publicly revealed, or we may witness shameless intrusion on the privacy of well-known people under the slogan: "everyone is entitled to know everything." But this is a false slogan, characteristic of a false era: people also have the right not to know, and it is a much more valuable one. The right not to have their divine souls stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk. A person who works and leads a meaningful life does not need this excessive burdening flow of information. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It's been said that every good parent wants only for his child to be happy. I want happiness for you, but so much more. I want you to not know the pain that awaits you. I want you to roar back at the things that scare you. I want for you a life that is not just happy, but meaningful.

But above all, I want you to embrace the love you find yourself drawn to, whatever that may be. I hope this book will show you that if you can find it in you to push past the fear of loving another person - if you can lean to live with the inevitable loss that comes with doing so - you will know a good and meaningful life. ~ Camille Pagan

Only those who are eager to get lost in the wilderness of life's beauty can find a meaningful life. ~ Debasish Mridha

It is better to have a meaningful life and make a difference than to merely have a long life. ~ Bryant H. McGill

There are three levels of happiness: the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life. ~ Joel Garreau

If I know the classical psychological theories well enough to pass my comps and can reformulate them in ways that can impress peer reviewers from the most prestigious journals, but have not the practical wisdom of love, I am only an intrusive muzak soothing the ego while missing the heart.

And if I can read tea leaves, throw the bones and manipulate spirits so as to understand the mysteries of the universe and forecast the future with scientific precision, and if I have achieved a renaissance education in both the exoteric and esoteric sciences that would rival Faust and know the equation to convert the mass of mountains into psychic energy and back again, but have not love, I do not even exist.

If I gain freedom from all my attachments and maintain constant alpha waves in my consciousness, showing perfect equanimity in all situations, ignoring every personal need and compulsively martyring myself for the glory of God, but this is not done freely from love, I have accomplished nothing.

Love is great-hearted and unselfish; love is not emotionally reactive, it does not seek to draw attention to itself. Love does not accuse or compare. It does not seek to serve itself at the expense of others. Love does not take pleasure in other peeople's sufferings, but rejoices when the truth is revealed and meaningful life restored. Love always bears reality as it is, extending mercy to all people in every situation. Love is faithful in all things, is con ~ Stephen Muse

In my relationship with God, I've learned that if I follow a 'formula' for how I spend my time with Him, then I'm just accomplishing a checklist of things I feel obligated to do to please Him. This makes my spiritual life more about doing what I need to do to fulfill an obligation than something meaningful. ~ Joyce Meyer

Don't give up. Life is a journey. And we are here to inspire each other. To touch each other's hearts. We are born for a purpose. We must find our purpose in life. And live our life for that purpose. ~ Avijeet Das

An ocean of depth lies undiscovered within your being. ~ Avijeet Das

You may not always end up where you thought you were going, But you will always end up where you were meant to be. ~ Jessica Taylor

Now is the time to understand more, so we fear less. ~ Marie Curie

What gives a person's brief time on this planet meaning is engaging in small acts of kindness. Bestowing an act of kindness upon other people is the greatest gift that a person will ever give to other people and such acts shall renew the gifting person. When we unreservedly accept and love our brethren, we become the ineluctable wind that vivifies the lives of other people. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Never stop believing that you are a seed that must be converted into a big tree ~ Myra Yadav

To give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal - to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

It was fun; you know, at this point in my life it's like, I want to do stuff that's meaningful. ~ Joan Cusack

To build a life you love, do what you love every single day. Make the time for what matters most to you for a more meaningful life. ~ Akiroq Brost

Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life. ~ Anton Chekhov

There has never been a meaningful life built on easy street. ~ John Paul Warren

For a scientist, this is a good way to live and die, maybe the ideal way for any of us - excitedly finding we were wrong and excitedly waiting for tomorrow to come so we can start over. ~ Norman Maclean

Unless individuals have the power to defy commoditization and define their own lives, their potential is vulnerable to the crushing forces of objectification. ~ Tom Hayes

many gamers have already figured out how to use the immersive power of play to distract themselves from their hunger: a hunger for more satisfying work, for a stronger sense of community, and for a more engaging and meaningful life. ~ Jane McGonigal

The Atonement is our singular hope for a meaningful life. ~ Tad R. Callister