Purpose Quotes

5907 quotes by 3153 authors

The true, unacknowledged purpose of capital punishment is to inspire fear and awe -- fear and awe of the State. — Edward Abbey
The purpose and function of government is not to preside over change but to prevent change. By political methods when unavoidable, by violence when convenient. — Edward Abbey
Who's straight? I'm not. I am bent gouged pinched and tugged at, and squeezed into this funny shape. Each life is a game of chess… — Martin Amis
The mission of the law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even though the law may be acting in a… — Frederic Bastiat
Once wide coercive powers are given to governmental agencies for particular purposes, such powers cannot be effectively controlled by democratic assemblies. — Friedrich August von Hayek
Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make… — Frederic Bastiat
The people, especially when moderately instructed, are the only safe, because the only honest, depositaries of the public rights, and should therefore be introduced into… — Thomas Jefferson
Our tenet ever was . . . that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically… — Thomas Jefferson
To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection. — Alexander Hamilton
No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it… — J.R.R. Tolkien
We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things. The only reason we didn't set up hot-dog stands in the midst of the… — Ray Bradbury
Reason in a creature is a faculty of widening the rules and purposes of the use of all its powers far beyond natural instinct; it… — Immanuel Kant
I just had a child on purpose at age 56, I'm pretty f---ing optimistic. — Steve Earle
It is very certain that [the commerce clause] grew out of the abuse of the power by the importing States in taxing the non-importing, and… — James Madison
One glance proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that these unions (railroad craft unions) are exceedingly useful to the corporations; and to the extent… — Eugene V. Debs
A lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind, and the most profitable — Finley Peter Dunne
Europeâ€™s nations should be guided towards the superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as… — Jean Monnet
Most people trusted in the future, assuming that their preferred version of it would unfold. Blindly planning for it, envisioning things that weren't the case.… — Jhumpa Lahiri
So far as we are concerned, there is not one word in the statements that I have made in this council which can be interpreted… — Arundhati Roy
I recall drinking sherry in California and dreaming of England, where I ate dalmoth and dreamed of Delhi. What is the purpose, I wonder, of… — Vikram Seth

Who Wrote These Purpose Quotes

3,153 authors contributed a total of 5,907 Purpose Quotes, led by these top contributors: