Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose direction and begin to bend. ~Walter Savage Landor


The purpose of life is a life of purpose. ~Robert Byrne


To have no set purpose in one's life is the harlotry of the will. ~Stephen MacKenna


Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. ~Washington Irving


We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years, and justify our existence... on pain of liquidation. ~George Bernard Shaw


An "unemployed" existence is a worse negation of life than death itself. ~José Ortega y Gasset


A useless life is an early death. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Worry ducks when purpose flies overhead. ~C. Astrid Weber


When he walks he casts a shadow of purpose. ~Emme Woodhull-Bäche


I love the valiant; but it is not enough to wield a broadsword, one must also know against whom. ~Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1892


There is a purpose to our lives that each day tugs at our sleeve as an annoying distraction. ~Robert Brault


We all possess the thunder of pure fury and the calm breeze of tranquility. If it wasn't for tomorrow, how much would we get done today? Whatever your purpose... embrace it completely. Get lost in the clouds every now and then so you never lose sight of God's wonder. ~Paul Vitale


When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind. ~Seneca


This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. ~George Bernard Shaw


To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. ~Alan Coren, The Sanity Inspector, 1974


If Heaven made him - earth can find some use for him. ~Chinese Proverb