“When you know that everything matters—that every move counts as much as any other—you will begin living a life of permanent purpose.”

Variant: Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

The Elf Queen Of Shannara
Source: The Elf Queen of Shannara

Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 142
Context: “I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Well.” She started pouring tea. “To start things off, what do you think of the world?”
“I don’t know anything.”
“The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you’re seventeen you know everything. When you’re twenty-seven if you still know everything you’re still seventeen.”
“You seem to have learned quite a lot over the years.”
“It is the privilege of old people to seem to know everything. But it’s an act and a mask, like every other act and mask. Between ourselves, we old ones wink at each other and smile, saying, How do you like my mask, my act, my certainty? Isn’t life a play? Don’t I play it well?”
They both laughed quietly.

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 155

Original: Nella vita ciò che conta è su chi puoi contare.
Source: prevale.net

"The Myths by Which We Live", in The Rotarian, Vol. 107, No. 3 (September 1965), p. 55
Variant: The purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived.

Source: Handle with Care