Why We Are Here Quotes

• We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Inspirational, Positive Thinking, Spiritual Vision

  33 Copy quote

• Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live. To live a fulfilled life, we need to keep creating the "what is next", of our lives. Without dreams and goals there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here.

  Mark Twain

  Dream, Inspirational Life, Creating

  5 Copy quote

• I don't know the meaning of life. I don't know why we are here. I think life is full of anxieties and fears and tears. It has a lot of grief in it, and it can be very grim. And I do not want to be the one who tries to tell somebody else what life is all about. To me it's a complete mystery.

  Charles M. Schulz

  Grief, Thinking, Anxiety

  54 Copy quote

• Why we are here is an impenetrable question.

  Edward Albee

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  You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Life, Motivational, Inspiring

  Woodrow Wilson, Albert Bushnell Hart (2002). “Selected Addresses and Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson”, p.15, The Minerva Group, Inc.

  248 Copy quote

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• Why we are here is important, but to know where we are going is imperative. It's not what you've got, it's what you use, that makes a difference in how your life turns out.

  Zig Ziglar

  Motivation, Differences, Important

  13 Copy quote

• I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Happiness, Sarcastic, Philosophy

  "The Beginning of the End" by Peter Hershey, (p. 109), 2004.

  116 Copy quote

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• Why we are here: To tremble at the terrible beauty of the stars, to shed a tear at the perfection of Beethoven's symphonies, and to crack a cold one now and then.

  David Letterman

  Stars, Beer, Symphony

  12 Copy quote

• I believe love is what makes the world go round. No matter how old or young, love is why we are here. It is the very essence of one's being.

  Olivia Newton-John

  Love, Believe, Essence

  23 Copy quote

• Ever since the dawn of civilization, people have not been content to see events as unconnected and inexplicable. They have craved an understanding of the underlying order in the world. Today we still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from. Humanity's deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest. And our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in.

  Stephen Hawking

  Order, Civilization, People

  Stephen W. Hawking (1990). “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes”, Bantam

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• It's daring to be curious about the unknown, to dream big dreams, to live outside prescribed boxes, to take risks, and above all, daring to investigate the way we live until we discover the deepest treasured purpose of why we are here.

  Luci Swindoll

  Dream, Risk, Way

  Luci Swindoll (2003). “I Married Adventure”, p.9, Thomas Nelson Inc

  28 Copy quote

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• The paralyzing effect of fear makes us as helpless as babies and blinds us to the truth that God didn't send us here to be powerless spectators, but to become powerful initiators. We are spiritual beings having an earthly experience, and we have the power to break the cycle of negativity that is fueling a very dangerous world. It's not only possible, it's why we are here.

  Susan L. Taylor

  Spiritual, Baby, Powerful

  16 Copy quote

• Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.

  Anne Lamott

  Children, True Friend, Mean

  38 Copy quote

• You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand

  Woodrow Wilson

  Spiritual Vision, Achievement, World Vision

  Woodrow Wilson, Albert Bushnell Hart (2002). “Selected Addresses and Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson”, p.15, The Minerva Group, Inc.

  69 Copy quote

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• Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. This is why we are here.

  Jon J Muth

  Your Side, Important, Sides

  14 Copy quote

• It is time for us to take off our masks, to step out from behind our personas - whatever they might be: educators, activists, biologists, geologists, writers, farmers, ranchers, and bureaucrats - and admit we are lovers, engaged in an erotics of place. Loving the land. Honoring its mysteries. Acknowledging, embracing the spirit of place - there is nothing more legitimate and there is nothing more true. That is why we are here. That is why we do what we do. There is nothing intellectual about it. We love the land. It is a primal affair.

  Terry Tempest Williams

  Land, Intellectual, Farmers And Ranchers

  Terry Tempest Williams (2015). “An Unspoken Hunger”, p.77, Vintage

  69 Copy quote

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• We are in a race between knowledge and catastrophe. If we keep track of what is important, never lower our standards or forget why we are here, we have the ability to determine the fate of the world.

  Dean Kamen

  Fate, Race, Track

  13 Copy quote

• People must belong to a tribe; they yearn to have a purpose larger than themselves. We are obligated by the deepest drives of the human spirit to make ourselves more than animated dust, and we must have a story to tell about where we came from, and why we are here.

  E. O. Wilson

  Dust, People, Purpose

  "Consilience: Unity of Knowledge". Book by E. O. Wilson, www.cnn.com. 1998.

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• If someone is feeling out of sorts or detached it's a great time to bring them in and restate why we are here and what we are trying to do.

  John Petrucci

  Feelings, Trying, Great Times

  Source: myglobalmind.com

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• It is imperative that the past of the pilgrims' progress be intentionally carried forward into the present as we work into our future. Without it we cannot know who we are, why we are here, or where we can go. Without a common past to live out of we become aimless and wandering individuals instead of a pilgrim people.

  H. Richard Niebuhr

  Past, People, Progress

  9 Copy quote

• We are shaped by stories from the first moments of life, and even before. Stories tell us who we are, why we are here, and what will become of us. Whenever humans try to make sense of their experience, they create a story, and we use those stories to answer all the big questions of life. The stories come from everywhere--from family, church, school, and the culture at large. They so surround and inhabit us that we often don't recognize that they are stories at all, breathing them in and out as a fish breathes water.

  Daniel Taylor

  School, Breathing, Water

  12 Copy quote

• A job is something we do to get a paycheck and pay our bills. Jobs are legitimate, at times, but work is why we are here in the universe. Work and calling often go together.

  Matthew Fox

  Jobs, Together, Calling

  5 Copy quote

• Eloquent and moving... an extraordinary testament to the enduring power of love - beyond faith and dogma. It reminds us of why we are here: to love and live fully, to be curious about all things, and to live a compassionate - and passionate - authentic life.

  Mira Bartok

  Moving, Passionate, Dogma

  4 Copy quote

• What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.

  Anne Lamott

  Children, Order, People

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.32, Anchor

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• The main reason, Your Holiness, of why we are here today, is it is not the business of the church to stray from the field of faith and morals and wonder into the playground that is science... it is not the business of the church to pronounce on science.

  Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

  Church, Fields, Holiness

  4 Copy quote