‘Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers,’

Cecil Beaton

Image of Audrey Hepburn by Cecil Beaton, via the Imperial War Museum Creative Commons image archive

“We thought of life by analogy with a journey with a pilgrimage which had a serious purpose at the end the thing was to get to that end success or whatever it is or maybe heaven after you’re there. But we missed the point the whole way along it was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or dance while the music was being played.”

Alan Watts from a lecture entitled Music and Life (h/t Tim Leberecht)

A mantra from Fred “Mister” Rogers, to give strength to anyone walking into the unknown.

“I believe happiness is only possible if you follow your feeling, your intuition, your real desires. Only unhappiness is gained by acting in accordance with duty, or obligation, or guilt, or the desire to please others. You must accept happiness where you can, not selfishly, but remembering you are a part of the world, of others, not separate from them. Should people pursue their own happiness at the expense of others? Or should they be unhappy so others can be happy? There’s no one who hasn’t had to confront this problem.” - The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi.

“Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious, and however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”

- Professor Stephen Hawking

"Should is how others want us to show up in the world — how we’re supposed to think, what we ought to say, what we should or shouldn’t do.... Must is different—there aren’t options and we don’t have a choice.

Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self. It’s our instincts, our cravings and longings, the things and places and ideas we burn for, the intuition that swells up from somewhere deep inside of us. Must is what happens when we stop conforming to other people’s ideals and start connecting to our own. Because when we choose Must, we are no longer looking for inspiration out there. Instead, we are listening to our calling from within, from some luminous, mysterious place."

- @elleluna, The Crossroads of Should & Must

“Noah would happily work sixteen-hour days if he only knew what it was he should be doing.”

- Po Bronson, What Should I do With my Life?

“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.”

- Albert Camus

I can’t remember where I found this picture, but it pretty much captures how I feel when I’m doing work I can’t stand

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, an existentialist before his time.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

- Søren Kierkegaard

“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me.” Sartre and de Beauvoir, along with the other existentialists, shared a quest for authenticity in life. For them, it was not enough to live as society proscribed. The consequence of freedom is responsibility - to seek truth, to understand oneself and act honestly in relation to one’s values. Often this means discomfort, tearing oneself from certainties. There is a lot online about authentic living - arguably the existentialists have been the champions of the honest life since the 1930s!

Jean-Paul Sartre said “Man is condemned to be free”. He believed we are radically responsible for all that we do and, therefore, all that we become. Perhaps the challenge of our lives is to work out what to do with all our freedom.

From Texts from your Existentialist

Somewhat like the Whole Earth Catalogue, Questions on Purpose aims to be an orientation and access device to the world of discussions on meaning and purpose.

‘“Shut up,” the seminar leader said

“You already know all the answers inside. You’re just asking me for permission to do what you already know is right. You’re looking for validation. Stop. You don’t need anyone’s permission. When you get an internal sense of what’s right, just go do it. Act, and then see what happens. Adjust your actions depending on the results that you get.

When you come across a problem, think for yourself how to solve it, trust in your own judgement. See the world with your own fresh pair of eyes and make your own conclusions from first hand experience. Don’t just listen to everything that other people tell you. Always question and think critically; other people are no smarter than you are. Listen to others, but think for yourself.”’

from ConsiousEd - Purpose - What should I do with my life?

“We each have our own personal Yearning Octopus5 in our heads. The particulars of each person’s Yearning Octopus will vary, but people also aren’t all that different from each other, and I bet many of us feel very similar yearnings and fears (especially given that I find that Wait But Why readers tend to have a lot in common).

The first thing to think about is that there are totally distinct yearning worlds—each living on one tentacle. These tentacles often do not get along with each other.”

From Wait but Why - How to pick a career

“In the pond, we have a bit more breathing room and some leeway to branch out into more specific interests. We start to ponder, looking out at the pond’s shores—out there where the real world starts and where we’ll be spending the rest of our lives. This usually brings some mixed feelings.”

Source: Wait but Why - Picking a Career