Echoes

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, honorable, compassionate.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me.

The man who dies rich dies disgraced.

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier for our living in it.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.

The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise. The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is. The Tao nourishes by not forcing. By not dominating, the Master leads.

Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

Be thou never without something to do; be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or doing something that is useful to the community.

Reaching the summit of a mountain gives great satisfaction, but nothing for me has been more rewarding in life than the result of our climb on Everest, when we have devoted ourselves to the welfare of our Sherpa friends.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?

I don't know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest and my trips to the poles. But there's no doubt, either, that my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain.

The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.

I believe people work for satisfaction.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.