Seeking purpose in life

The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week

In Friday's post I made the point that people won't fare very well if they have no purpose in life. But where and how can they find such purpose? For your consideration, I offer a very short discussion, in the form of somewhat-dueling quotes.

Pardon, Your Holiness, but that seems a bit short on practical details. Could you please elaborate? How do we get to happiness as the purpose in our lives from where we are today?

That's a bit clearer, thanks. But not everyone agrees with His Holiness's original point that "The purpose of our lives is to be happy." Here's a counterargument from Leo Rosten:

Rosten, a noted writer, humorist, and observer of the world, had an outlook very much in tune with many of the creative people I've known. For him and for many others of us, our purpose in life consists of more than just being happy. It's even more than just making others happy. We want "to have made some difference" that we lived at all. How future generations will realize that purpose in life remains to be seen.

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to PictureQuotes for the first Dalai Lama quote, and for turning me on to the second one, although their coverup of the credit line irked me (the image originated from an entity called One Voice, whose online presence apparently has ended. It was reposted by "Raya" on Forsti's Soup and has since spread from there). 

Finally, I want to thank Pass it On and Values.com for the Leo Rosten quote image. Please note that the background image for the Pass it On/Rosten quote conveys a message of its own, if you recognize it.

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818), Caspar David Friedrich

Art history buffs among my readers will have recognized it as one of the masterpieces of 19th Century European Romanticism. The painting is Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818) by Caspar David Friedrich - The photographic reproduction was done by Cybershot800i. (Diff), Public Domain, and is available courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.