Meaningfulness Quotes

• What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, Bears, Philosopher

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.118, Beacon Press

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• I think happiness is a combination of pleasure, engagement and meaningfulness.

  Ian K. Smith

  Thinking, Engagement, Pleasure

  "Medical correspondent Dr. Ian Smith". "Tavis Smiley", www.pbs.org. July 5, 2010.

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• Men in plural […] can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and themselves.

  Hannah Arendt

  Men, Make Sense

  Hannah Arendt (2013). “The Human Condition: Second Edition”, p.4, University of Chicago Press

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• To be sure, man's search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health. There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life. There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Men, World, May

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.91, Beacon Press

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• I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I've got.

  Hermann Hesse

  Believe, Meaning Of Life, Responsible

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• It doesn't have to be pretty. It has to be meaningful.

  Duane Hanson

  Meaningful, Art, Prettiness

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• You don't ask what a dance means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what the world means. You enjoy it. You don't ask what you mean. You enjoy it.

  Joseph Campbell

  Mean, World, Enjoy

  Joseph Campbell (2011). “Myths to Live By”, p.58, Joseph Campbell Foundation

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• Sometimes you will never know the value of something,until it becomes a memory.

  Dr. Seuss

  Love, Inspirational, Memories

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• Each one of us is responsible for the whole of humankind. We need to think of each other really as brothers and sisters and to be concerned for each other’s welfare. Rather than working solely to acquire wealth, we need to do something meaningful, something directed seriously towards the welfare of humanity as a whole.

  Dalai Lama

  Sister, Meaningful, Brother

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• Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so that we may feel again their majesty and power? What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered?

  Annie Dillard

  Reading, Inspire, Mind

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• If someone hurt you, abandoned you, betrayed you..it says nothing about your meaningfulness but everything about their character.

  Krystal

  Hurt, Character, Betrayed

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• Please don't settle for happiness. It's not good enough. Of course you deserve it, but if that's all you have in mind - happiness - I want to suggest to you that personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice - that's more than a barren life. It's a trivial one.

  Toni Morrison

  Commitment, Justice, Not Good Enough

  FaceBook post by Toni Morrison from Aug 23, 2011

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• He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The words that matter always stay.

  David Levithan

  Meaningful, Important, Unspoken Words

  David Levithan (2008). “The Realm of Possibility”, p.143, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• Humans find meaningfulness where none exists because we want to create a sense of order in this chaotic universe. It's called apophenia. (And it's also the reason people believe in God.)

  Megan McCafferty

  Believe, Order, People

  Megan McCafferty (2010). “The Complete Jessica Darling Series: Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, Charmed Thirds, Fourth Comings, Perfect Fifths”, p.1102, Crown

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• I can not 'make my mark' for all time - those concepts are mutually exclusive. 'Lasting effect' is a self-contradictory term. Meaning does not exist in the future and neither do I. Nothing will have meaning 'ultimately.' Nothing will even mean tomorrow what it did today. Meaning changes with the context. My meaningfulness is here. It is enough that I am of value to someone today. It is enough that I make a difference now.

  Hugh Prather

  Time, Future, Mean

  Hugh Prather (2009). “Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person”, p.24, Bantam

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• I’m actually trying to make sense of the world. There’s nothing cynical or absurd in what I do.

  Yue Minjun

  Meaningful, Cynical, Chinese

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• We can never know what might have been but what is to come is another matter entirely

  C. S. Lewis

  Meaningful, Future, Past

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• ...talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.

  Patrick Süskind

  Hard Work, Mean, Humility

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• When you ask people what it is like being part of a great team, what is most striking is the meaningfulness of the experience. People talk about being part of something larger than themselves, of being connected, of being generative. It becomes quite clear that, for many, their experiences as part of truly great teams stand out as singular periods of life lived to the fullest.

  Peter Senge

  Team, People, Standing Out

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• Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.

  Ernest Becker

  Men, Levels, Existentialism

  Ernest Becker (1985). “The Denial of Death”, New York : Free Press

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• Man is in fact nailed down - like Christ on the Cross - to a grid of paradoxes. He balances between the torment of not knowing his mission and the joy of carrying it out, between nothingness and meaningfulness. And like Christ, he is in fact victorious by virtue of his defeats.

  Vaclav Havel

  Men, Christ On The Cross, Knowing

  "Václav Havel: Heir to a Spiritual Legacy" by Richard L. Stanger. Christian Century article, pp.368-370, www.religion-online.org. April 11, 1990.

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• At each level of gratitude our soul's capacity deepens, starting with contentment to meaningfulness, and finally, to pure joy.

  M. J. Ryan

  Gratitude, Joy, Soul

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• Faith is the final triumph over incongruity, the final assertion of the meaningfulness of existence.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Triumph, Finals, Existence

  Reinhold Niebuhr, (2013). “Discerning the Signs of the Times - Sermons for Today and Tomorrow”, p.83, Read Books Ltd

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• Monotheistic religions in the West have tended to conflate having a general orientation in life, having a specific theory of the world, having a sense of the positive meaningfulness of one's existence, and having a fixed set of rules for behavior, but these elements are in principle separable. ... The "metaphysical need," ... both Marx and Nietzsche held, is a historical phenomenon that arises under determinate circumstances, and could be expected to disappear under other circumstances that we could relatively easily envisage.

  Raymond Geuss

  Historical, Principles, Needs

  "Philosophy and Real Politics". Book by Raymond Geuss, 2008.

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