James Hillman Quotes

I've always felt I want to be of service to the world somehow. I haven't yet figured out how to do it, and I may never figure out how to do it.

If I didn't feel that I was doing something or trying to do something for others, then I would have very little excuse for the life that I lead.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

I aspire to be useful.

I like to be useful to people.

You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.

Every character is asking: 'What's my place? Why am I here? I don't want the answer to be 'Just because.' You find your own purpose. Each finds the reason to be here and how to contribute.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don't discover why. Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.

It's not like during your normal day, anyone says, 'How do having meaning in your life? How do you make meaning in your life?'

To be in any way a positive contribution, that's all anybody wants to be. It's all I've ever wanted to be. I wanted to be an artist, be a mother. You want to feel that in your life you've been of use, in whatever way that comes out.

I want to go where I can be of the most service to the general enterprise.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

I was sitting around, moping and feeling badly for myself. I went to the hospital to visit a child, and it hit me: helping people is what I'm meant to do.

I don't want to be a guy that's just out there to be out there; I want to play and contribute.

I just want to do something that I feel makes a difference.

You are not here in the world for yourself. You have been sent here for others. The world is waiting for you!

What preys on my mind is simply this one question: what am I good for, could I not be of service or use in some way?

Life is not meaningful...unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else.

Significance in life doesn’t come from status, because you can always find somebody who’s got more than you. It doesn’t come from sex. It doesn’t come from salary. It comes from serving.

The most important thing is contribution because the secret to living is giving. If you catch on to that you start realizing that there's nothing you can get that comes close to what you can give. Life is calling all of us to be more than just about ourselves and that is when we get that spiritual hit.

...which causes me to wonder, my own purpose on so many days as humble as the spider's, what is beautiful that I make? What is elegant? What feeds the world?

If you devote yourself to more than yourself ... you will have more than yourself to show for yourself.

When people are serving, life is no longer meaningless.