Last Updated: February 18, 2023 by Quote.cc Team
What you do in your life is only ever as good as why you do it. That way, or purpose. Some people go their whole lives, never truly knowing their goal. They never know because they never seek. And because they never seek, most of their days are casually lived out, lacking depth and experiencing chronic feelings of emptiness. Having a purpose makes it impossible to exist merely. When you have a definite reason for living, a “why” behind every action, your passions and talents will drive you toward a happy, fulfilling destination.
Your life’s purpose is multi-layered. When you first start searching for your purpose, you grab hold of the first one you find (that 1st external layer) only to outgrow it. And then you’ll move on to your next-level purpose. And for a while, you’ll be living on goal again, a plan that was different from what you thought it was only a few years ago, and yet, in due time, you will proceed to outgrow your current purpose only to discover your new goal. With every outgrowth of your old sense and the discovery of your new one, you’ll become more and more aligned with your true life’s purpose.
What is your purpose in life, your reason for being? Let these purpose quotes give you thoughts for reflection. Get some inspiration to find yours from these 120 inspiring quotes about living your life on purpose.
120 Purpose Quotes
Top 10 Purpose Quotes
“Your purpose must be particular to you. This is the road less traveled. Your purpose cannot be someone else’s path, not your family’s path nor your friends’ path.” – Drew Scott Pearlman
“Your purpose becomes your inner motivator, turning on the ignition switch in your brain to transcend the noise in your life and focus on what matters most.” – Victor Strecher
“Your calling isn’t something that somebody can tell you about. It’s what you feel. It is the thing that gives you juice. The thing that you are supposed to do. And nobody can tell you what that is. You know it inside yourself.” – Oprah Winfrey
“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.” – Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
“You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.” – Margaret Young
“You have a masterpiece inside you, you know. One unlike any that has ever been created, or ever will be. If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted. No one else can paint it. Only you.” – Gordon Mackenzie
“You have a gift inside of you that only you possess. It was meant to benefit the world in some way.” – Delatorro McNeal II
“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.” – Abraham Lincoln
“You can have anything you want – if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.” – William Adams
“Why did you get out of bed this morning, and why should anyone care?” – Simon Sinek
Best Purpose Quotes
“When you walk in purpose, you collide with destiny.” – Ralph Buchanan
“When you stay on purpose and refuse to be discouraged by fear, you align with the infinite self, in which all possibilities exist.” – Wayne Dyer
“When you find your WHY, you don’t hit snooze no more! You find a way to make it happen!” – Eric Thomas
“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.” – Victor Frankl
“What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.” – Margaret Atwood
“What a different story men would have to tell if only they would adopt a DEFINITE PURPOSE, and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession!” – Napoleon Hill
“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” – Rick Warren
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.” – Oscar Wilde
“To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“To begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.” – James Allen
“There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world―and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs.” – Deepak Chopra
“There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honor your calling. It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.” – Oprah Winfrey
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”” – Maya Angelou
“The self is made, not given.” – Barbara Myerhoff
“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“The secret of success is constancy of purpose!” – Napoleon Hill
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama
“The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.” – Thomas Carlyle
“The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.” – Barbara Hall
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, joy, or passion.” – Terry Orlick
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.”” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are going.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
“The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The cities, the roads, the countryside, the people I meet – they all begin to blur. I tell myself I am searching for something. But more and more, it feels like I am wandering, waiting for something to happen to me, something that will change everything, something that my whole life has been leading up to.” – Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed
“The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.” – Charles Dickens
Life Purpose Quotes
“A man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.” – Victor Frankl
“By setting and pursuing goals, you have nothing to lose but a lot to gain. It has been scientifically proven that people who set goals are more fulfilled and positive about life. Having a purpose to wake up to each day will challenge us and give us meaning.” – Zoe McKey
“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua Marine
“Believe in your heart that you’re meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.” – Roy T. Bennett
“Deep within each person, there is an intuitive knowledge of what she or he wants most in life. We only have to look for it.” – Joseph Campbell
“Everyone has a purpose in life…a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the exctasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of goals.” – Deepak Chopra
“Everything in your life informs you what your purpose is. How do you know it’s your purpose? It feels like it’s the right space for you. It feels like ‘This is what I should be doing; this is where I feel most myself.’” – Oprah Winfrey
“Figure out what your purpose is in life, what you really and truly want to do with your time and your life; then be willing to sacrifice everything and then some to achieve it. If you are not willing to make the sacrifice, then keep searching.” – Quintina Ragnacci
“Giving so that others may be helped is a purpose of life that we should all embrace.” – Byron Pulsifer
“For starters, making a positive contribution to someone else’s life says that you are worthwhile and have a purpose in life.” – Luke Gregory
“I believe each of us has a mission in life, and that one cannot truly be living their most fulfilled life until they recognize this mission and dedicate their life to pursuing it.” – Blake Mycoskie
“I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says,“aw shit, he’s up!” – Steve Maraboli
“If you can tune into your purpose and really align with it, setting goals so that your vision is an expression of that purpose, then life flows much more easily.” – Jack Canfield
“If you organize your life around your passion, you can turn your passion into your story and then turn your story into something bigger―something that matters.” – Blake Mycoskie
“If you have a strong purpose in life, you don’t have to be pushed. Your passion will drive you there.” – Roy T. Bennett
“It is better to have a meaningful life and make a difference than to merely have a long life.” – Bryant H. McGill
“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. … The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
“Lean forward into your life. Begin each day as if it were on purpose.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
“Knowing your purpose gives your life meaning, simplicity, focus and motivation. It also prepares you for eternity.” – Rick Warren
“Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.” – Roy T. Bennett
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” – Viktor Frankl
“Life is difficult. Not just for me or other ALS patients. Life is difficult for everyone. Finding ways to make life meaningful and purposeful and rewarding, doing the activities that you love and spending time with the people that you love – I think that’s the meaning of this human experience.” – Steve Gleason
“Life is a promise; fulfill it.” – Mother Teresa
“Once you determine that the important results you want are an expression of your life’s purpose, you cannot help but bring drive, dedication, and determination to each day’s efforts. You will be driven to act relentlessly to meet cherished goals, all the while feeling rewarded, satisfied, and even joyful in the process.” – Russell Grieger
“The aim of life is self-development, to realize one’s nature perfectly.” – Oscar Wilde
“Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.” – John D. Rockefeller
“The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.” – Rick Warren
“The most important days of your life are the day you’re born, and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Picasso
“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“The purpose of life is to know God.” – Wayne Dyer
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” – Robert Byrne
“The two most important days in life are the day you born and the day you discover the reason why.” – Mark Twain
“The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.” – Michel de Montaigne
“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced; live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” – Indian Proverb
“You’ve got to have a purpose no matter what you do in life.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” – Buddah
Find Your Purpose Quotes
“We are all born with a purpose. Some have the purpose to teach, some to create beautiful work of arts, some to create products, some to invent things, some to build huge edifices.” – Rafael Bettencourt
“True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” – Helen Keller
“True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.” – Pliny the Elder
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” – Les Brown
“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.” – Seneca
“In the end, the money and success that truly last come not to those who focus on such things as goals, but rather to those who focus on mastery and fulfilling their Life’s Task.” – Robert Greene
“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.” – Washington Irving
“Good. Be confused. Confusion is where inspiration comes from.” – Robyn Mundell
“Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” – Paulo Coelho
“Purpose is the quality we choose to shape our lives around.” – Richard J. Leider
“Purpose is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s needs.” – Frederick Buechner
“Purpose is not a noun, it is a verb. It is about how we work. We experience purpose when we do something that’s greater than ourselves. We experience purpose when we push ourselves and grow. We experience purpose as part of a community.” – Aaron Hurst
“Perhaps the single most important ingredient in all of life for achieving happiness and fulfillment: Purpose.” – Harvey Volson
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.” – Dalai Lama
“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” – Simon Sinek
“Passion and purpose scale – always have, always will.” – Elon Musk
“Nothing is more likely to help a person overcome or endure troubles than the consciousness of having a task in life.” – Victor Frankl
“Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.” – Marian Wright Edelman
“Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are ultimately to be at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be.” – Abraham Maslow
“More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent.” – Billy Sunday
“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose” – Leonardo da Vinci
“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.” – Winston S. Churchill
“It is absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on spending time doing things you don’t like and teaching your children to follow in the same track.” – Alan Watts
“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dream of meeting your heart’s longing.” – Oriah
Purpose Quotes For Girlfriend
“I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible; it’s not just divinely assigned.” – Michael J. Fox
“I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.” – Og Mandino
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Nietzsche
“Have a higher purpose than money.” – Grant Cardone
“Happy are those whose purpose has found them.” – Anonymous
“Happiness is within. It has nothing to do with how much applause you get or how many people praise you. Happiness comes when you believe that you have done something truly meaningful.” – Martin Yan
“Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
“Chase your passion, not your pension.” – Denis Waitley
“Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going.” – Chantal Sutherland
“As you open yourself to living at your edge, your deepest purpose will slowly begin to make itself known.” – David Deida
“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.” – James Allen
“Follow your dreams, they know the way.” – Kobe Yamada
“Everyone has been made for some particular work and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” – Jalaluddin Rumi
“Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose, the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success.” – James Allen
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” – John F. Kennedy
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it” – Viktor Frankl
“Do what you have to do until you can do what you want.” – Oprah Winfrey
“Do not let your grand ambitions stand in the way of small but meaningful accomplishments.” – Bryant H. McGill
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi
In Conclusion
I hope these 120 quotes about purpose serve you well in finding and living yours out.
If you’ve found yourself ever doubting your purpose, know it’s natural. It’s even realistic to be purposeless for a while, so long as you never cease to seek. And so long as you never stop to pursue, you’ll get closer and closer to discovering your true purpose eventually.
These inspiring purpose quotes will help you on your journey as you seek, discover, and live your life’s purpose.
So, how are you finding your purpose? Please share with us your experiences in the comment section below.