What is purpose?

Famous quotes containing the word purpose:

“Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)

“The purpose of population is not ultimately peopling earth. It is to fill heaven.”
—Graham D. Leonard (b. 1921)

“Man, her last work, who seemed so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law—
Though Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed—”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)