It is not often that Life Daily enters the realms of philosophy or theology on such a profound subject as the purpose of life.
When attempting to deal with such a complex subject, one finds many questions – and an even greater array of answers – which vary according to cultural, spiritual, or ideological criteria.
Philosophical, scientific, and religious concepts differ about such elements as happiness, symbolic meaning, value, purpose, ethics, free will, good and evil, and the existence of one or more Gods.
Entering into any discussion involving religion and religious belief is a dangerous minefield, which we will try to avoid since it touches on such aspects as the human soul, and some form of life after death.
The scientific approach focuses primarily on basic empirical facts about the universe. This way of thinking is concerned more with the ” how” of life, rather than the “why.”
We don’t claim to have the solution to questions about the purpose of life.
So we have selected these quotes from a number of eminent people in order to be able to look at life from a variety of perspectives:
1. 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
2. The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
― Dalai Lama
3. 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
4. The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5. All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man’s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.
― Albert Einstein
6. The purpose of life is to live it, not destroy it.
― Ebelsain Villegas
7. We are frightfully concerned with our own deaths, sometimes so much so that we forget the real purpose of our lives.
― Brian L. Weiss
8. The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.
― Robert F. Kennedy
9. 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.
― Seneca
10. You keep waiting for the moral of your life to become obvious, but it never does. Work, work, work: No moral. No plot. No eureka! Just production schedules and days. You might as well be living inside a photocopier. Your lives are all they’re ever going to be.
― Douglas Coupland
11. What is the purpose of living if there are no perils to be encountered and overcome?
― David Almond
12. The purpose of life is to live, learn, and love.
― Christine Rice
13. 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
14. Life is not about negative circumstances that happen to you, it’s about what you do with the golden opportunities hidden within!
― Rhonda Byrne
15. The purpose and point of this life is to learn and love – and it may be more specifically to learn to love.
― Kimberly Giles
16. The earth is not just for the clever and the strong.
― Shūsaku Endō
Do you identify with any of these viewpoints on the purpose of life?
Perhaps you agree with American author Robert Bryne who said simply, “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”
You can share your thoughts and views by using the comments feed provided below.
