Top 200 Meaning of Life Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Meaning Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Fulfillment Quotes, Deep Quotes

2. “Man’s search for meaning is the chief motivation of his life.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Human Nature Quotes, Fulfillment Quotes, Mental Health Quotes

3. “The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Fulfillment Quotes, Mental Health Quotes, Wellness Wednesday Quotes

4. “Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Purpose Quotes

5. “Life is the sum of your choices.”

— Albert Camus

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Opportunity Quotes, Choices Quotes, Smart Quotes

6. “For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Existentialism Quotes

7. “What you seek is seeking you.”

— Rumi

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Interesting Quotes, Manifestation Quotes, Spiritual Growth Quotes

8. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

— Mary Oliver

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Motivational Quotes About Life, Life Lessons Quotes, Choices Quotes, Mindfulness Quotes

9. “To be or not to be that is the question.”

— William Shakespeare

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Famous Quotes, Fiction Quotes, Philosophy Quotes

10. “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.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Make A Difference Quotes, Motivational Quotes About Life

11. “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”

— Ernest Hemingway

Also featured in: Experience Quotes, Fiction Quotes, Hard Hitting Quotes, Life Philosophy Quotes

12. “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.”

— Saint Augustine

Also featured in: Christian Quotes, Spirituality Quotes, Soul Quotes, Quotes About Heart

13. “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

— Albert Camus

Also featured in: Deep Quotes, Philosophical Quotes, Challenges Quotes, Quotes About Trying

14. “Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.”

— Buddha

Also featured in: Happiness Quotes, Attitude Quotes, Wellness Quotes, Wisdom Quotes

15. “As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

— Seneca

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Interesting Quotes, Short Positive Quotes, Reflection Quotes

16. “We are hardwired to connect with others, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Positive Inspirational Quotes, Psychology Quotes, Human Nature Quotes, Mental Health Quotes

17. “You are the Universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.”

— Eckhart Tolle

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Short Inspiring Quotes, Short Inspirational Quotes, Universe Quotes

18. “When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes

19. “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

— C. S. Lewis

Also featured in: Christian Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Blessed Quotes, Spiritual Growth Quotes

20. “It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Meaningful Quotes, Life is Hard Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Struggle Quotes

21. “Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. Follow the path that is no path, follow your bliss.”

— Joseph Campbell

Also featured in: Experience Quotes, Being Happy Quotes, Path Quotes, Soul Quotes

22. “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Attitude Quotes, Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Empowerment Quotes, Choices Quotes

23. “It is up to you to give life a meaning.”

— Jean-Paul Sartre

Also featured in: Meaning Quotes, Philosophical Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Freedom Quotes

24. “Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth.”

— Marianne Williamson

Also featured in: Love Quotes, Spiritual Growth Quotes, Spirituality Quotes, Compassion Quotes

25. “Despair is suffering without meaning.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Meaning Quotes, Mental Health Quotes, Depressing Quotes, Suffering Quotes

26. “The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Fulfillment Quotes, Mental Health Quotes, Helping Others Quotes

27. “Man cannot stand a meaningless life.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Meaning Quotes

28. “Let silence take you to the core of life.”

— Rumi

Also featured in: Sufism Quotes, Silence Quotes

29. “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to leave the world a better place, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Happiness Quotes, Positive Inspirational Quotes, Meaningful Quotes

30. “It’s a luxury to pursue what makes you happy; it’s a moral obligation to pursue what you find meaningful.”

— Jordan B. Peterson

31. “You need no time to open yourself to the power of now and so awaken to who you are beyond name and form and realize that in the depth of your being, you are already complete, whole, one with the timeless essence of all life.”

— Eckhart Tolle

Also featured in: Self-Care Quotes, Enlightenment Quotes, Inner Peace Quotes

32. “In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Suffering Quotes, Adversity Quotes

33. “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Existentialism Quotes

34. “When it’s time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Also featured in: Enjoy Life Quotes

35. “One day you will ask me which is more important – my life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.”

— Khalil Gibran

Also featured in: Love Quotes, Interesting Quotes, Couple Quotes

36. “Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken. Take heed, do not squander your life.”

— Dōgen

Also featured in: Awakening Quotes, Zen Quotes

37. “The point is not what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes

38. “In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least trying to accomplish all of your wildest dreams in life.”

— Kevin Smith

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes, Motivational Quotes About Life, Dreaming Big Quotes

39. “The meaning of life is that it is to be lived.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Short Quotes About Life, Meaning Quotes, Live Life Quotes, Motivational Quotes About Life

40. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once.”

— George R.R. Martin

Also featured in: Quotes About Books And Reading, Fiction Quotes, Quality Quotes, Thought Provoking Quotes

41. “Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny – he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally – you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you.”

— Osho

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Enlightenment Quotes, Live Life Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes

42. “Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?”

— Bob Marley

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Short Inspirational Quotes, Reflection Quotes, Choices Quotes

43. “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

— Carl Sagan

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Interesting Quotes, Short Inspiring Quotes, Science Quotes

44. “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Philosophy Quotes, Individuality Quotes

45. “It’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.”

— Paulo Coelho

Also featured in: Change Quotes, Optimistic Quotes, Impact Quotes, Personal Development Quotes

46. “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

— Soren Kierkegaard

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47. “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Psychology Quotes, Self-Realization Quotes, Reflection Quotes

48. “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

— Albert Camus

Also featured in: Happiness Quotes, Deep Quotes About Life, Meaning Quotes, Reflection Quotes, Philosophical Quotes

49. “In the end, we’ll all become stories.”

— Margaret Atwood

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Fiction Quotes, Storytelling Quotes, Creative Quotes

50. “Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.”

— Bob Marley

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Short Inspiring Quotes, Meaning Quotes