What you do in your life is only ever as good as why you do it. That why, or purpose, is defined in almost all dictionaries as the “…reason for existence.”

When we apply the powerful concept of purpose to our lives and organizations, they transform. Nothing becomes meaningless; everything becomes a stone on the path to delivering our reason for existence to the world.

Here are my favorite quotes on living and leading with purpose:

[bctt tweet=”He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” username=”ZachMercurio”]

2. “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” – Viktor Frankl

3. “You have a masterpiece inside you, you know. One unlike any that has ever been created, or ever will be. If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted. No one else can paint it. Only you.” – Gordon Mackenzie

4. “The two most important days in life are the day you born and the day you discover the reason why.” – Mark Twain

5. “Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to ultimately be at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be.” – Abraham Maslow

6. “It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dream of meeting your heart’s longing.” – Oriah

7. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” – Proverbs 29:18

8. “Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it” – Viktor Frankl

9. “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

10. “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” – Les Brown

11. “It is absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on spending time doing things you don’t like and teaching your children to follow in the same track.” – Alan Watts

12. “People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” – Simon Sinek

13. “Why did you get out of bed this morning, and why should anyone care?” – Simon Sinek

14. “I believe each of us has a mission in life, and that one cannot truly be living their most fulfilled life until they recognize this mission and dedicate their life to pursuing it.” – Blake Mycoskie

15. “The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.” – Thomas Carlyle

16. “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” – Robert Byrne

17. “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Picasso

18. “Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” – Buddah

19. “Happy are those whose purpose has found them.” – Anonymous

20. “When you walk in purpose, you collide with destiny.” – Ralph Buchanan

21. “Purpose is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s needs.” – Frederick Buechner

22. “To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

23. “Good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

24. “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” – John F. Kennedy

25. [bctt tweet=”What you do is only ever as good as why you do it.” username=”ZachMercurio”] (I had to!)