This page lists my all-time favorite life purpose quotes to inspire a meaningful life.
You can find links to more intentional living quotes at the bottom of this page.
When you’re ready to dive deeper, here’s my recommended reading on life purpose:
50+ Life Purpose Quotes to Inspire a Meaningful Life
“Not knowing what it is all about, we look to somebody else to tell us the goal, end or purpose of life. We turn to beliefs, books and leaders, and when they offer us something, though we may be momentarily satisfied, sooner or later we want something else.” — Krishnamurti
“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond and to know one’s self.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Your own self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.” — Sri Ramana Maharshi
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” — Aldous Huxley
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” — Joseph Campbell
“The movement toward psychological health is also the movement toward spiritual peace and social harmony.” — Abraham Maslow
“The discovery of yourself and the discovery of God will eventually be parallel movements. You fall deeper into yourself. You fall deeper into God. You fall deeper into God, you have permission to fall deeper into yourself.” — Richard Rohr
“The others obey their own lead, follow their own impulses. Don’t be distracted. Keep walking. Follow your own nature, and follow Nature—along the road they share.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The fraction of infinity … allotted to each of us … The fraction of all substance, and all spirit. The fraction of the whole earth … Don’t treat anything as important except doing what your nature demands, and accepting what Nature sends you.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge.” — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
“He (Maslow) defined self-actualization as discovering what you are meant to do and committing to the ardor of pursuing it with excellence. The purpose of free society, I would suggest, is to systematically increase the percentage of people who do exactly that.” — Jim Collins
“Awakened doing is the alignment of your outer purpose, what you do—with your inner purpose—awakening and staying awake.” — Eckhart Tolle
“Anybody who is one with what he or she does is building the new earth.” — Eckhart Tolle
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.” — George Bernard Shaw
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” — Carl Jung
“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” — Siddhārtha Gautama
“Life purpose…is the foundation of your life. It’s the cohesion of your existence, your essence, and your spine — that which animates and holds you upright in the world.” — Jayne Stevenson
“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.” — Joseph Campbell
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman
“I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” — Joseph Campbell
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” — Alan Watts
“Why am I here? The point is to be part of the increasing livingness of life … Please allow the service to life, this concept of I am life, therefore, I, like all life, am here to make the whole world more alive. Try that on and let that color your perceptions.” — Charles Eisenstein
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” — Frederick Buechner
“Our deepest happiness in life stems from fulfilling purpose. Doing the best we can, where we are, with what we’ve been given is the best way to live a life of meaning and significance.” — Joshua Becker
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” — Rumi
“Dig deep; the water—goodness—is down there. And as long as you keep digging, it will keep bubbling up.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Follow your bliss, and by bliss I mean the deep sense of being in it, and doing what the push is out of your own existence … You follow that and doors will open where there were no doors before … and where there wouldn’t be a door for anybody else.” — Joseph Campbell
“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.” — Joseph Campbell
“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.” — Robert Frost
“That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” — Walt Whitman
“Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.” — Eckhart Tolle
“Among our most universal human longings is to affect the world with our actions somehow, to leave an imprint with our existence.” — Maria Popova
“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” — Søren Kierkegaard
“Take good ideas and make them available to a wide public.” — Alain de Botton
“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.” — Robert F. Kennedy
“We always may be what we might have been.” — Adelaide Anne Procter
“I just go on doing, as they say, my thing. I believe this takes a certain courage.” — Samuel Barber
“Passion + Daily Action = Purposeful Life” — Shannon Kaiser
“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.” — David Viscott
“What good shall I do today?” — Ben Franklin
“He who knows how will always work for he who knows why.” — David Lee Roth
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.” — Seneca
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Anonymous
“People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash and eat.” — Marcus Aurelius
“A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.” — Siddhārtha Gautama
“The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” — Viktor Frankl
“Life comes from physical survival; but the good life comes from what we care about.” — Rollo May
“Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself — be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is.” — Viktor Frankl
“Legacy is not leaving something for people. It’s leaving something in people.” — Peter Strople
“The question is: What are you willing to stand for? That question is going to follow you throughout your life … Pick a problem. Any problem. And do something about it. Because to somebody who is hurting, something is everything.” — Oprah
“It’s not enough to know what you want. You have to DO what you want to BE what you want.” — Paulo Coelho
“We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.” — Richard Scott
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” — James Clear
“My goal is try to do useful things, try to maximize the probability that the future is good, make the future exciting … something you look forward to.” — Elon Musk
“The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.” — Dennis Gabor
“You use your highest strengths and talents to belong to and serve something you believe is larger than the self.” — Martin Seligman
“This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the ‘why’ for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any ‘how.'” — Viktor Frankl
“Here’s the truth. We exist on this earth for some undetermined period of time. During that time we do things. Some of these things are important. Some … are unimportant. And those important things give our lives meaning and happiness.” — Mark Manson
“If you say that money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is, to go on doing things you don’t like doing.” — Alan Watts
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