True Meaning Quotes

• This above all; to thine own self be true.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Graduation

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 3, l. 58

  99 Copy quote

  Show source

• You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

  Albert Camus

  Life, Happiness, Happy

  "Intuitions" by Albert Camus, Youthful Writings, 1976.

  180 Copy quote

  Show source

• Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.

  Thomas Merton

  Love, Valentines Day, Fate

  Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.32, Macmillan

  191 Copy quote

  Show source

• You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

  Albert Camus

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

  "Youthful Writings". Book by Albert Camus, October 1932.

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Graduation, Honesty

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 3, l. 58

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

• The course of true love never did run smooth.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Life, Summer

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. 132

  112 Copy quote

  Show source

• The true meaning of courage is to be afraid, and then, with your knees knocking and your heart racing, to step out anyway—even when that step makes sense to nobody but you. I know that’s not easy. But making a bold move is the only way to truly advance toward the grandest vision the universe has for you.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Moving, Heart, Racing

  4 Copy quote

• Grandmother pointed out my brother Perry, my sister Sarah, and my sister Eliza, who stood in the group. I had never seen my brother nor my sisters before; and, though I had sometimes heard of them, and felt a curious interest in them, I really did not understand what they were to me, or I to them. We were brothers and sisters, but what of that? Why should they be attached to me, or I to them? Brothers and sisters were by blood; but slavery had made us strangers. I heard the words brother and sisters, and knew they must mean something; but slavery had robbed these terms of their true meaning.

  Frederick Douglass

  Brother, Mean, Grandmother

  Frederick Douglass (1855). “My Bondage and My Freedom ...”, p.48

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The alchemist was dazed and dumbfounded, as the true meaning of the magic was revealed: *The dead will rise from glade to glen and ancient will be young again*. The dead had, after all, risen. From dead and dry things there was growth, and new life everywhere. And the endlessly long winter had at last turned to spring. From life to death and back again to life. It was indeed the greatest magic in the world.

  Lauren Oliver

  Spring, Healing, Winter

  4 Copy quote

• How can we know the true meaning of charity if we don't even know how to help those closest to us?

  Sarah Addison Allen

  Charity, Helping, Know How

  4 Copy quote

• What is art? (...) Like a declaration of love: the consciousness of our dependence on each other. A confession. An unconscious act that none the less reflects the true meaning of life—love and sacrifice.

  Andrei Tarkovsky

  Art, Love Life, Sacrifice

  8 Copy quote

• There is no life without death. That is the true meaning of yin and yang

  Lisa See

  Yang, Yin And Yang

  6 Copy quote

• The truths of the Judaic-Christian tradition, are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace, in the true meaning of the word, for which we all long. . . . There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Faith, Christian, Hope

  64 Copy quote

• I hope you find true meaning, contentment, and passion in your life. I hope you navigate the difficult times and come out with greater strength and resolve. I hope you find whatever balance you seek with your eyes wide open. And I hope that you - yes, you - have the ambition to lean in to your career and run the world. Because the world needs you to change it.

  Sheryl Sandberg

  Running, Passion, Ambition

  12 Copy quote

• To know John Kennedy, as I did, was to understand the true meaning of the word. He understood that courage is not something to be gauged in a poll or located in a focus group. No adviser can spin it. No historian can backdate it. For, in the age old contest between popularity and principle, only those willing to lose for their convictions are deserving of posterity's approval.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Focus, Age, Approval

  Remarks by President Gerald R. Ford on Receiving the 2001 Profile in Courage Award, www.jfklibrary.org. May 21, 2001.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Yellow wakes me up in the morning. Yellow gets me on the bike every day. Yellow has taught me the true meaning of sacrifice. Yellow makes me suffer. Yellow is the reason I'm here.

  Lance Armstrong

  Morning, Sacrifice, Yellow

  20 Copy quote

• Any time we are answer-driven rather than idea driven, we have lost the true meaning of education.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Ideas, Answers, Driven

  Reddit AMA, November 13, 2011.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The first step into the realm of giving is...not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning: that is not worthy of the name for 'no polluted thing' can be offered.

  Lilias Trotter

  Names, Ideas, Long

  51 Copy quote

• It's the true meaning of music being a universal language, constantly fighting and going through different boundaries in order for new people to hear the music and be like, "Oh, sh*t! I mess with this Pitbull kid."

  Pitbull

  Kids, Fighting, Order

  Source: djbooth.net

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Brother, Compassion, Views

  Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence, Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need to help people to discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.

  Fred Rogers

  Confused, Love Is, People

  Fred Rogers (1995). “You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor”, p.22, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Death is our constant companion, and it is death that gives each person's life its true meaning.

  Paulo Coelho

  Giving, Companion, Constant

  Paulo Coelho (1992). “The diary of a magus”, Harpercollins

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I'm ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I'm interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without.

  Ansel Adams

  Photography, Eye, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• This generation has lost the true meaning of romance. There are so many songs that disrespect women. You can’t treat the woman you love as a piece of meat. You should treat your love like a princess. Give her love songs, something with real meaning. Maybe I’m old fashioned but to respect the woman you love should be a priority.

  Tom Hiddleston

  Respect, Song, Real

  103 Copy quote

• There is no fulfillment in things whatsoever. And I think one of the reasons that depression reigns supreme amongst the rich and famous is some of them thought that maybe those things would bring them happiness. But what, in fact, does is having a cause, having a passion. And that's really what gives life's true meaning.

  Benjamin Carson

  Passion, Thinking, Giving

  "Famed Surgeon Ben Carson on Overcoming Adversity". "News & Notes" with Ed Gordon, www.npr.org. May 6, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source