52 Goal Quotes

The universalists, the idealists, the Utopians all aim too high. They give promises of an unattainable paradise, and by doing so they deceive mankind. Whatever label they wear, whether they call themselves Christians, Communists, humanitarians, whether they are merely sincere but stupid or wire-pullers and cynics, they are all makers of slaves. I myself have always kept my eye fixed on a paradise which, in the nature of things, lies well within our reach. I mean an improvement in the lot of the German people. (21st February 1945)

The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.

We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.

Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.

The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope.

Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.

Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit.

Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and if no obstacles intervene he moves towards her by as straight a line as they. But Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing their faces against its opposite sides like the magnet and the filings with the card. Romeo soon finds a circuitous way, by scaling the wall or otherwise, of touching Juliet's lips directly. With the filings the path is fixed; whether it reaches the end depends on accidents. With the lover it is the end which is fixed, the path may be modified indefinitely.

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is Reached.

I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it - keep going, keep going come what may. But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought.

If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

Every intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are. Hence probably the imperiousness of the desire for fame, which is a desire for a self utterly unlike the real self.

Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.

But often faltering feet Come surest to the goal; And they who walk in darkness meet The sunrise of the soul.

I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago... the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

The pilgrims were human beings. Otherwise they would have acted differently. They had come a long and difficult journey, and now when the journey was nearly finished, and they learned that the main thing they had come for had ceased to exist, they didn't do as horses or cats or angle-worms would probably have done - turn back and get at something profitable - no, anxious as they had before been to see the miraculous fountain, they were as much as forty times as anxious now to see the place where it had used to be. There is no accounting for human beings.

We can look upon a road from two different points of view. One regards it as dividing us from the object of desire; in that case we count every step of our journey over it as something attained by force in the face of obstruction. The other sees it as the road which leads us to our destination; and as such is part of our goal. It is already the beginning of our attainment, and by journeying over it we can only gain that which in itself it offers to us.

Here was a problem, that I, a ten year old, could understand and I knew from that moment that I would never let it go. I had to solve it.

A cripple in the way out-travels a footman or a post out of the way.

I just want that one day, when I retire, that people still remember me like they remember Buster. I really want someone to respect me the way they respect Buster.

Thou fill'st from the winged chalice of the soul Thy lamp, O Memory, fire-winged to its goal.

The quest for truth is the summum bouum of life.

The true Way of sword fencing is the craft of defeating the enemy in a fight, and nothing other than this.

If it's we who choose. I'll reach another level. To be that one who never lost a day. ~ 'Man In Uniform'

Mental-stability, I would say. I'd like to achieve a fluidity, where everything stays consistent - always doing shows, always with the chance to release records, meeting new people. But i've got no chance. Im just a talentless batty boy.

The pilgrims were human beings. Otherwise they would have acted differently. They had come a long and difficult journey, and now when the journey was nearly finished, and they learned that the main thing they had come for had ceased to exist, they didn't do as horses or cats or angle-worms would probably have done - turn back and get at something profitable - no, anxious as they had before been to see the miraculous fountain, they were as much as forty times as anxious now to see the place where it had used to be. There is no accounting for human beings.

Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes time and annoys the pig.

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Don't let yourself indulge in vain wishes.

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

We all live with the objective of being happy, our lives are all different and yet the same.

'I've been struggling for years to get a fur coat. How did you get yours?' 'I left off struggling.'

Destiny is what we work toward. The future doesn't exist yet. Fate is for losers.

Im Gebirge ist der nachste Weg von Gipfel zu Gipfel: aber dazu musst du lange Beine haben. Spruche sollen Gipfel sein: und Die, zu denen gesprochen wird, Grosse und Hochwuchsige.

Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!

He was always leaning forward, pushing something invisible ahead of him.

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.

I would say that teleology is theology, and that God is not a 'because,' but rather an 'in order to.'

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.

The hippies had in mind something that they wanted, and were calling it 'freedom,' but in the final analysis 'freedom' is a purely negative goal. It just says something is bad. Hippies weren't really offering any alternatives other than colorful short-term ones, and some of these were looking more and more like pure degeneracy. Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.

'Never, Never Quit!'