Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

If life only has the meaning you bring to it, we have the opportunity to bring rich meaning to our lives by the service we do for others.

I hope I contribute something useful to the human family. That's my intention. And I hope that it's useful to people.

I hope that what I am today is of positive benefit to other people.

To have a meaningful life, you have to be of service …

Live for yourself and you will live in vain; Live for others, and you will live again.

We only have so much life left. Before I do die, I want to do something good for people.

If you want to live a long life, focus on making contributions.

It's a really wonderful thing to focus your life on something other than your own personal career and ambition.

Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.

It feels good to know you contributed positively to another's life, to their happiness, to their survival. It gives us a sense of purpose.

It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute... that gives meaning to our lives.

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

I am convinced that success is not measured by what you get out of life, but by what you give back.

Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.

Service is what life is all about.

You have to be passionate about something other than yourself!

It's a great feeling knowing you've helped someone. That's what I've spent my life doing and my practice.

I was raised to be in service to something larger than myself. A lot of actors concentrate on what they will get out of the profession, rather than what they can offer it. The way I see it, if you come with something to offer, you can offer it forever.

As long as God lets me live, I want to do things that make a difference in the world besides play music.

I don't really care how I am remembered as long as I bring happiness and joy to people.

If it awakens in us as a whole how important that is - the theme of how conquest and ambition are meaningless without contribution - I think then as a society we're in better shape. I hope people are inspired to be the best.

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 aspire to be useful.

What greater bliss than to look back on days spent in usefulness, in doing good to those around us.