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Purpose - Wikiquote
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class="vector-toc-numb">1.1</span> <span>A - F</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-A_-_F-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-G_-_L" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#G_-_L"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.2</span> <span>G - L</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-G_-_L-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-M_-_R" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#M_-_R"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.3</span> <span>M - R</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-M_-_R-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-S_-_Z" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#S_-_Z"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.4</span> <span>S - Z</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-S_-_Z-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" 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title="Intention">intentions</a>, targets, aims, goals, and objects or results which are desired. Most involve conceptions of an individual's voluntary behavior or active awareness, and have had significant histories of involvement in <a href="/wiki/Religion" title="Religion">religion</a>, <a href="/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy">philosophy</a>, <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">science</a>, <a href="/wiki/Technology" title="Technology">technology</a>, <a href="/wiki/Politics" title="Politics">politics</a>, <a href="/wiki/War" title="War">war</a> and forms of <a href="/wiki/Art" title="Art">art</a> and <a href="/wiki/Magic" class="mw-redirect" title="Magic">magic</a>. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Quotes">Quotes</h2></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="A_-_F">A - F</h3></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Margot_Fonteyn_Cinderella_1957.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Margot_Fonteyn_Cinderella_1957.jpg/220px-Margot_Fonteyn_Cinderella_1957.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="295" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Margot_Fonteyn_Cinderella_1957.jpg/330px-Margot_Fonteyn_Cinderella_1957.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Margot_Fonteyn_Cinderella_1957.jpg/440px-Margot_Fonteyn_Cinderella_1957.jpg 2x" data-file-width="854" data-file-height="1144" /></a><figcaption>I <a href="/wiki/Need" title="Need">need</a> to have a purpose in <a href="/wiki/Life" title="Life">life</a> and for that I might sacrifice some of the <a href="/wiki/Luxuries" class="mw-redirect" title="Luxuries">luxuries</a> that I <a href="/wiki/Enjoy" class="mw-redirect" title="Enjoy">enjoy</a>; fortunately I am fairly adaptable. I try to be <a href="/wiki/Aware" class="mw-redirect" title="Aware">aware</a>, flexible and unbiased in my <a href="/wiki/Thinking" class="mw-redirect" title="Thinking">thinking</a>. ~ <a href="/wiki/Margot_Fonteyn" title="Margot Fonteyn">Margot Fonteyn</a> </figcaption></figure> <ul><li>A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo" title="Sri Aurobindo">Sri Aurobindo</a>, <i>The Uttarpara Address</i> (1909)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>I am working in everybody and whatever men may think or do, they can do nothing but help in my purpose. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo" title="Sri Aurobindo">Sri Aurobindo</a>, <i>The Uttarpara Address</i> (1909)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Not result is the purpose of action, but God's eternal delight in becoming, seeing and doing. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo" title="Sri Aurobindo">Sri Aurobindo</a>, <i>Thoughts and Aphorisms</i> (1913)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The great rule of life is to have no schemes but one unalterable purpose. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo" title="Sri Aurobindo">Sri Aurobindo</a>, ., Nahar, S., Aurobindo, ., & Institut de recherches évolutives (Paris). <i>India's rebirth: A selection from Sri Aurobindo's writing, talks and speeches.</i> Paris: Institut de Recherches Evolutives. 3rd Edition (2000). <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170826004028/http://bharatvani.org/books/ir/IR_frontpage.htm">[1]</a></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b><a href="/wiki/All" class="mw-redirect" title="All">All</a> things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our <a href="/wiki/Art" title="Art">art</a>.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges" title="Jorge Luis Borges">Jorge Luis Borges</a>, in <i>Twenty Conversations with Borges, Including a Selection of Poems: Interviews by Roberto Alifano, 1981–1983</i> (1984)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>In day-to-day life it is easy for the utilitarian lens of metrics to eclipse the moral lens that drew us to our work in the first place. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/David_Brooks_(journalist)" title="David Brooks (journalist)">David Brooks</a>, '<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/opinion/middle-managers-business-society.html">New York Time</a>, 2024</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Oppression tries to defend itself by its utility. But we have seen that it is one of the lies of the serious mind to attempt to give the word “useful” an absolute meaning; nothing is useful if it is not useful to man; nothing is useful to man if the latter is not in a position to define his own ends and values, if he is not free. Doubtless an oppressive regime can achieve constructions which will serve man: they will serve him only from the day that he is free to use them; as long as the reign of the oppressor lasts, none of the benefits of oppression is a real benefit. Neither in the past nor in the future can one prefer a thing to man, who alone can establish the reason for all things. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir" title="Simone de Beauvoir">Simone de Beauvoir</a>, <cite style="font-style:normal" class="book"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ethics_of_Ambiguity" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:The Ethics of Ambiguity">The Ethics of Ambiguity</a></i>. Philosophical Library. 1948. <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8065-0160-4" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8065-0160-4">ISBN 978-0-8065-0160-4</a>.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=%5B%5B%3Awikipedia%3AThe+Ethics+of+Ambiguity%7CThe+Ethics+of+Ambiguity%5D%5D&rft.date=1948&rft.pub=Philosophical+Library&rft.isbn=978-0-8065-0160-4&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Purpose"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/ambiguity/ch03.htm">Part III: The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity</a></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Plato" title="Plato">Plato</a> defined a <a href="/wiki/Slave" class="mw-redirect" title="Slave">slave</a> as one who accepts from another the purposes which control his conduct. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/John_Dewey" title="John Dewey">John Dewey</a>, in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_and_Education" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Democracy and Education">Democracy and Education</a></i> (1916), Section 7: The Democratic Conception in Education</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Poetry" title="Poetry">Poetry</a> has historically been allied with <a href="/wiki/Religion" title="Religion">religion</a> and <a href="/wiki/Morals" class="mw-redirect" title="Morals">morals</a>; it has served the purpose of penetrating the mysterious depths of things. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/John_Dewey" title="John Dewey">John Dewey</a>, in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_and_Education" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Democracy and Education">Democracy and Education</a></i> (1916), Section 18: Educational Values</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>I would rather work with five people who really believe in what they are doing rather than five hundred who can't see the point.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Patrick_Dixon" title="Patrick Dixon">Patrick Dixon</a>, in <i>Building a Better Business</i> (2005), p. 14</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: <i>to create a customer</i>. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Peter_Drucker" title="Peter Drucker">Peter Drucker</a> (1954) <i>The Practice of Management</i> p. 37</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>We look upon this shaken <a href="/wiki/Earth" title="Earth">Earth</a>, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose — the building of a <a href="/wiki/Peace" title="Peace">peace</a> with <a href="/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">justice</a> in a world where <a href="/wiki/Moral" class="mw-redirect" title="Moral">moral</a> <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a> prevails.</b> The building of such a peace is a bold and solemn purpose. To proclaim it is easy. To serve it will be hard. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower" title="Dwight D. Eisenhower">Dwight D. Eisenhower</a>, in his <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dwight_Eisenhower%27s_Second_Inaugural_Address" class="extiw" title="s:Dwight Eisenhower's Second Inaugural Address"> Second Inaugural address (21 January 1957)</a></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>I <a href="/wiki/Need" title="Need">need</a> to have a purpose in life and for that I might sacrifice some of the luxuries that I enjoy; fortunately I am fairly adaptable. I try to be aware, flexible and unbiased in my thinking. </b>If I have learnt anything, it is that <a href="/wiki/Life" title="Life">life</a> forms no <a href="/wiki/Logical" class="mw-redirect" title="Logical">logical</a> <a href="/wiki/Patterns" class="mw-redirect" title="Patterns">patterns</a>. It is haphazard and full of <a href="/wiki/Beauties" class="mw-redirect" title="Beauties">beauties</a> which I try to catch as they fly by, for who <a href="/wiki/Knows" class="mw-redirect" title="Knows">knows</a> whether any of them will ever return? <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Margot_Fonteyn" title="Margot Fonteyn">Margot Fonteyn</a>, in <i>Margot Fonteyn : Autobiography</i> (1975), p. 272</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>I, too, believed it was impossible to change the existing society into one that would be for the benefit of all; neither could I espouse any given ideal for society. But [...] I felt that even if one did not have an ideal vision of society, one could have one’s work to do. Whether it was successful or not was not our concern; it was enough that we believed it to be a valid work. The accomplishment of that work, I believed, was what our real life was about. Yes. I want to carry out a work of my own; for I feel that by so doing our lives are rooted in the here and now, not in some far-off ideal goal. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Kaneko_Fumiko" title="Kaneko Fumiko">Kaneko Fumiko</a>, <cite style="font-style:normal" class="book"><i>The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman</i>. M.E. Sharpe. 1991. p. 237. <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-87332-801-2" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-87332-801-2">ISBN 978-0-87332-801-2</a>.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Prison+Memoirs+of+a+Japanese+Woman&rft.date=1991&rft.pages=p.%26nbsp%3B237&rft.pub=M.E.+Sharpe&rft.isbn=978-0-87332-801-2&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Purpose"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span> Translated by Jean Inglis</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="G_-_L">G - L</h3></div> <ul><li>Even flies, parasites and microbes have their purpose to fulfil, and there is nothing superfluous in creation. <ul><li><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tmm/tmm07.htm">Tales and Maxims from the Midrash</a></i> by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Rabbah" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Genesis Rabbah">Genesis Rabbah</a></i> 10, (1907), p. 65</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The final <a href="/wiki/Goal" class="mw-redirect" title="Goal">goal</a> of the human race is <a href="/wiki/Independence" title="Independence">independence</a> and <a href="/wiki/Mutual_aid" class="mw-redirect" title="Mutual aid">mutual aid</a>, the realization of <a href="/wiki/Freedom" title="Freedom">freedom</a>, <a href="/wiki/Equality" title="Equality">equality</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Fraternity" class="mw-redirect" title="Fraternity">fraternity</a>. If we look at the evolution of <a href="/wiki/Politics" title="Politics">politics</a>, <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a>, <a href="/wiki/Religion" title="Religion">religion</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Ethics" title="Ethics">ethics</a>, they have been developing from heteronomy toward <a href="/wiki/Autonomy" title="Autonomy">autonomy</a>; thus after attaining self-governance the people will use their eventual individual surpluses to compensate for other’s inefficiencies. This is natural evolution, and this is also the ultimate ideal of life. Everyone should fight and strive toward this goal. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Uchiyama_Gud%C5%8D" title="Uchiyama Gudō">Uchiyama Gudō</a>, <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/uchiyama-gudo-common-consciousness">Common Consciousness</a></i> (1991), translated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabio_Rambelli" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Fabio Rambelli">Fabio Rambelli</a> in <cite style="font-style:normal" class="book"><i>Zen Anarchism: The Egalitarian Dharma of Uchiyama Gudō</i>. Institute of Buddhist Studies. 2013. <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1886439511" title="Special:BookSources/978-1886439511">ISBN 978-1886439511</a>.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Zen+Anarchism%3A+The+Egalitarian+Dharma+of+Uchiyama+Gud%C5%8D&rft.date=2013&rft.pub=Institute+of+Buddhist+Studies&rft.isbn=978-1886439511&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Purpose"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself. <ul><li><a href="/w/index.php?title=Joel_Hawes&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Joel Hawes (page does not exist)">Joel Hawes</a>, as quoted in <i>You're Born an Original - Don't Die a Copy</i> (1993) by John Mason.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Purpose has no place in <a href="/wiki/Biology" title="Biology">biology</a>, but <a href="/wiki/History" title="History">history</a> has no meaning without it. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/George_Kubler" title="George Kubler">George Kubler </a> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Time" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:The Shape of Time">The Shape of Time</a>,</i> 1982, p. 8</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln" title="Abraham Lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a>, in a <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln7/1:1171?rgn=div1;view=fulltext">letter to Eliza Gurney</a> (4 September 1864); quoted in Roy P. Basler, ed., <i>The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 7</i> (1953), p. 535.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln" title="Abraham Lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a>, in letter to Thurlow Weed (15 March 1865), published in <i>Abraham Lincoln: A Biography</i> (1916), by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Rathbone_Benson,_1st_Baron_Charnwood" class="extiw" title="w:Godfrey Rathbone Benson, 1st Baron Charnwood">Lord Charnwood</a></li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="M_-_R">M - R</h3></div> <ul><li>Every nation, like every individual, has received a mission that it must fulfil. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Joseph_de_Maistre" title="Joseph de Maistre">Joseph de Maistre</a>, <i><a href="/wiki/Considerations_on_France" title="Considerations on France">Considerations on France</a></i> (1796), Ch. II</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Everyone has a goal which appears to be great, at least to himself, and is great when deepest conviction, the innermost voice of the heart, pronounces it great. ... This voice, however, is easily drowned out, and what we thought to be inspiration may have been created by the fleeting moment and again perhaps destroyed by it. ... We must seriously ask ourselves, therefore, whether we are really inspired about a vocation, whether an inner voice approves of it, or whether the inspiration was a deception, whether that which we took as the Deity’s calling to us was self-deceit. But how else could we recognize this except by searching for the source of our inspiration? <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a>, <i>Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society</i>, L. Easton, trans. (1967), p. 36.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>Our purpose is to <a href="/wiki/Educate" class="mw-redirect" title="Educate">educate</a> as well as to entertain.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Curtis_Mayfield" title="Curtis Mayfield">Curtis Mayfield </a>, as quoted in <i>The Sociology of Rock</i> (1978) by Simon Frith</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>Purposes are deduced from behaviour, not from rhetoric or stated goals.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Donella_Meadows" title="Donella Meadows">Donella Meadows</a>, <i><a href="/wiki/Donella_Meadows#Thinking_in_Systems:_A_Primer_(2008)" title="Donella Meadows">Thinking in Systems: A Primer</a></i>, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008, page 14 (<a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781603580557" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn">ISBN 9781603580557</a>).</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>We all engage in purposeful activity, and we judge ourselves and others in terms of success in achieving the purposes that we set before ourselves. Yet we accept as the final product of this purposeful activity a picture of the world from which purpose has been eliminated. Purpose is a meaningful concept in relation to our own consciousness of ourselves, but it is allowed no place in our understanding of the world of facts. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Lesslie_Newbigin" title="Lesslie Newbigin">Lesslie Newbigin</a>, in <i>Foolishness to the Greeks : Gospel and Western Culture</i> (1986)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The hypothesis will lead to our thinking of features of each Universe as purposed; and this will stand or fall with the hypothesis. Yet a purpose essentially involves growth, and so cannot be attributed to <a href="/wiki/God" title="God">God</a>. Still it will, according to the hypothesis, be less false to speak so than to represent God as purposeless. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce" title="Charles Sanders Peirce">Charles Sanders Peirce</a>, on the God hypothesis, in "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God" (1908), § II</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>There is no good <a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">reason</a> why we should fear the <a href="/wiki/Future" title="Future">future</a>, but there is every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt" title="Theodore Roosevelt">Theodore Roosevelt</a>, in his <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt%27s_Inaugural_Address" class="extiw" title="s:Theodore Roosevelt's Inaugural Address">Inaugural Address</a> (1905)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>A <a href="/wiki/Unity" title="Unity">union</a> of indomitable resolution in the achievement of a given purpose, with <a href="/wiki/Patience" title="Patience">patience</a> and moderation in the policy pursued, and with kindly <a href="/wiki/Charity" title="Charity">charity</a> and consideration and <a href="/wiki/Friendship" title="Friendship">friendliness</a> to those of opposite <a href="/wiki/Belief" title="Belief">belief</a>, marks the very <a href="/wiki/Spirit" title="Spirit">spirit</a> in which we of to-day should approach the pressing problems of the <a href="/wiki/Present" title="Present">present</a>.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt" title="Theodore Roosevelt">Theodore Roosevelt</a>, in "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/treditorials/o160.pdf">The Progressives, Past and Present</a>" in: <i>The Outlook</i>, Vol. 96, No. 1 (3 September 1910)</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="S_-_Z">S - Z</h3></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Kusunoki_Masashige_statue.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Kusunoki_Masashige_statue.jpg/220px-Kusunoki_Masashige_statue.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="165" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Kusunoki_Masashige_statue.jpg/330px-Kusunoki_Masashige_statue.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Kusunoki_Masashige_statue.jpg/440px-Kusunoki_Masashige_statue.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2848" data-file-height="2136" /></a><figcaption>There is surely <a href="/wiki/Nothing" class="mw-redirect" title="Nothing">nothing</a> other than the single purpose of the <a href="/wiki/Present" title="Present">present</a> <a href="/wiki/Moment" title="Moment">moment</a>. [...] <a href="/wiki/Live" class="mw-redirect" title="Live">Live</a> being true to the single purpose of the moment. ~ <a href="/wiki/Yamamoto_Tsunetomo" title="Yamamoto Tsunetomo">Yamamoto Tsunetomo</a></figcaption></figure> <ul><li>There's no escaping reason, no denying purpose, for as we both know, without purpose we would not exist. <b>It is purpose that created us, purpose that connects us, purpose that pulls us, that guides us, that drives us; it is purpose that defines us, purpose that binds us.</b> <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Smith" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Agent Smith">Agent Smith</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_(The_Matrix)" class="extiw" title="w:Neo (The Matrix)">Neo</a> in <i><a href="/wiki/The_Matrix_Reloaded" title="The Matrix Reloaded">The Matrix Reloaded</a></i> (2003), written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_Wachowskis" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:the Wachowskis">the Wachowskis</a>.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. [...] Live being true to the single purpose of the moment. </b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Yamamoto_Tsunetomo" title="Yamamoto Tsunetomo">Yamamoto Tsunetomo</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagakure" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Hagakure">Hagakure</a></i> (<i>c</i>. 1716)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>I take great satisfaction in seeing people and organizations achieve goals they might have originally believed to be beyond their reach. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Don_W._Wilson" title="Don W. Wilson">Don W. Wilson</a> as quoted in <i>e-Study Guide for: American Government and Politics Today</i> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=suExAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT51&dq=%22I+take+great+satisfaction+in+seeing+people+and+organizations+achieve+goals+they+might+have+originally+believed+to+be+beyond+their+reach%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=i0iDU8G8BMix0AW17IDgDw&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22I%20take%20great%20satisfaction%20in%20seeing%20people%20and%20organizations%20achieve%20goals%20they%20might%20have%20originally%20believed%20to%20be%20beyond%20their%20reach%22&f=false">Google Books</a></li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Intention" title="Intention">Intention</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Meaning" title="Meaning">Meaning</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Means_and_ends" class="mw-redirect" title="Means and ends">Means and ends</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Will_(philosophy)" title="Will (philosophy)">Will</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div> <div class="noprint" style="clear: right; border: solid #aaa 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; font-size: 90%; background: #f9f9f9; width: 250px; padding: 4px; spacing: 0px; text-align: left; float: right;"> <div style="float: left;"><figure class="mw-halign-none" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Wikipedia"><img alt="Wikipedia" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/50px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="46" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/75px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/100px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="103" data-file-height="94" /></a><figcaption>Wikipedia</figcaption></figure></div> <div style="margin-left: 60px;"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> has an article about: <div style="margin-left: 10px;"><i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purpose" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Purpose">Purpose</a></b></i></div> </div> </div> <div class="noprint metadata" style="clear: right; border: solid #aaa 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; font-size: 90%; background: #f9f9f9; width: 250px; padding: 4px; spacing: 0px; text-align: left; float: right;"> <div style="float: left;"><figure class="mw-halign-none" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wiktionary-logo.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Wiktionary"><img alt="Wiktionary" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Wiktionary-logo.svg/50px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="47" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Wiktionary-logo.svg/75px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Wiktionary-logo.svg/100px-Wiktionary-logo.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="370" data-file-height="350" /></a><figcaption>Wiktionary</figcaption></figure></div> <div style="margin-left: 60px;">Look up <i><b><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purpose" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:purpose">purpose</a></b></i> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary" class="extiw" title="w:Wiktionary">Wiktionary</a>, the free dictionary</div> </div> <!-- NewPP limit report Parsed by mw‐web.eqiad.main‐67876799fc‐nhccz Cached time: 20241127145501 Cache expiry: 2592000 Reduced expiry: false Complications: [show‐toc] CPU time usage: 0.073 seconds Real time usage: 0.497 seconds Preprocessor visited node count: 1586/1000000 Post‐expand include size: 7844/2097152 bytes Template argument size: 2112/2097152 bytes Highest expansion depth: 12/100 Expensive parser function count: 0/500 Unstrip recursion depth: 0/20 Unstrip post‐expand size: 0/5000000 bytes Lua time usage: 0.003/10.000 seconds Lua memory usage: 619076/52428800 bytes Number of Wikibase entities loaded: 0/400 --> <!-- Transclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template) 100.00% 54.441 1 -total 64.50% 35.117 3 Template:Cite_book 59.52% 32.405 3 Template:Citation/core 29.48% 16.050 3 Template:ISBN 27.73% 15.099 1 Template:Wikipedia 6.16% 3.352 3 Template:Link 5.51% 3.000 1 Template:Wiktionary 4.37% 2.381 9 Template:W 4.00% 2.178 3 Template:Main_other 3.44% 1.874 1 Template:Sisterproject --> <!-- Saved in parser cache with key enwikiquote:pcache:23143:|#|:idhash:canonical and timestamp 20241127145501 and revision id 3564542. 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