Motivational Quotes on Purpose for Leaders
by Whitney Hopler, Communications Manager
As a leader, you need to know where you want to lead yourself and others. What’s the purpose of the work you do? Discovering your purpose – and working toward it every day – will empower you and the people you lead to learn and achieve success. Here are some motivational quotes on purpose and leadership:
“It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?” – Henry David Thoreau
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” – Patanjali
“Accept yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your truths, and know what tools you have to fulfill your purpose.” – Steve Maraboli
“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” – Rumi
“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose” – Leonardo da Vinci
“Purpose-driven organizations bound by values are stronger than profit-driven organizations bound by rules.” – Alexander Den Heijer
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
“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
“Purpose is what inspires you to get up in the morning.” – Betsy Smith
“Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.” – Roy T. Bennett
“It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.” – Amit Ray
“A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.” – David Gergen
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away!” – Pablo Picasso
“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.” – Thomas Merton
“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” – Shannon L. Alder
“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.” – Kofi Annan
“If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.” – Brené Brown
“What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.” – Margaret Atwood
“God’s definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.” – Francis Chan
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration, motivated by passion, generated by vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose.” – Myles Munroe
“Great minds have purpose, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.” – Washington Irving
“Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live.” – Criss Jami
“Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.” – Lauren Bacall
“The purpose of leadership is not to make the present bearable. The purpose of leadership is to make the future possible.” – Joan D. Chittiser
“There is no failure except failure to serve one’s purpose.” – Henry Ford
“You should not confuse your career with your life.” – Dave Barry
“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.” – Abraham Lincoln
“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” – Ben Stein
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Henry David Thoreau
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” – Albert Schweitzer
“What power there is in our service when our actions line up with our mission, skills and joy.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” – Mitch Albom
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” – John F. Kennedy
“A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or something other than himself.” – Joseph Campbell
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” – Albert Pike
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa