Finding Meaning in Life 

A five-minute search on the internet will give you hundreds of quotations about the meaning of life. Here are ten I recently came across that I liked enough to share with you.

1. “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” (Robert Byrne)

2. “To give life a meaning one must have a purpose larger than one’s self, and more enduring than one’s life.” (Will Durant)

3. “The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.” (George Eliot)

4. “The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a tiger into luster.” (D.H. Lawrence)

5. “More than anything else, what keeps a person going in the midst of adversity is having a sense of purpose.” (John C. Maxwell)

6. “The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost.” (Michel de Montaigne)

7. “Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

8. “There is nothing quite as potent as a focused life, one lived on purpose.” (Rick Warren)

9. “Integrity and firmness of purpose are all I can promise. These, be the voyage long or short, shall never forsake me.” (George Washington)

10. “Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.” (James Allen)

James Clear on Feeling Resistance 

“If you feel resistance before you begin, it’s usually procrastination and you need to get started. If you feel resistance after you begin, it’s usually feedback and you need to make adjustments.”

Bill Bonner on the Two Important Ways Government Spends Our Money 

“There are only two key issues in government – how it raises and spends its money… and against whom it goes to war. Everything else is a footnote. But on the two important issues, American voters have almost no say. Foreign policy is determined by the Foreign Policy Establishment, working hand in glove with the rest of the firepower industry’s shills and toadies – the press, the universities, Congress, and the bureaucracy.” – Bill Bonner, Bonner Private Research, March 8, 2024

Entropy: The Hidden Force that Complicates Life

“Entropy applies to every part of our lives. It is inescapable, and even if we try to ignore it, the result is a collapse of some sort. Understanding entropy leads to a radical change in the way we see the world. Ignorance of it is responsible for many of our biggest mistakes and failures. We cannot expect anything to stay the way we leave it. To maintain our health, relationships, careers, skills, knowledge, societies, and possessions requires never-ending effort and vigilance. Disorder is not a mistake; it is our default. Order is always artificial and temporary.”

Source: the BrainFood website

Let it go! 

“YOU fix what you can fix and you let the rest go. If there ain’t nothin’ to be done about it, it aint even a problem. It’s just a aggravation.” – Cormac McCarthy in No Country for Old Men

Just One Sip and No More! 

From James Clear, a master of pithy advice:

“It is not worth it to be greedy over a single transaction. Even if you’re not going to work with the person again. Even if you think word won’t get out. Even if you think this is your one shot to make it. Reputation follows you everywhere.”

I would add this: It’s not just that your reputation follows you everywhere, it’s that the habit of excusing yourself for behaving unethically does, too. If you think you are doing it just this one time and never again, you are fooling yourself.

From Mark Twain: 

“Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”

From James Clear: 

“You should always be rooting for the people you know. Not only because you may need their support tomorrow, but also because it feels good to celebrate something. Celebration can rescue your day – even if it is someone else’s victory. Envy will ruin your day – even if you’re actually winning.”

“Searching is half the fun: Life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.” – Jimmy Buffett

“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” – Gen. George S. Patton