10.

1177/0022167802238816
The
Richard
Meaning
T. Kinnier
of Lifeet al. ARTICLE
WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE HAVE SAID
ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE

RICHARD T. KINNIER is a professor of counseling psychology at Arizona

State University (ASU). His research interests include topics related to
values and the meaning of life. He recently wrote a book titled The Point of
It All. In it the meaning of life is finally revealed.

JERRY L. KERNES is a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at

ASU and is currently an intern at California State University at Long
Beach. His interests include values and meaning-in-life issues.

NANCY E. TRIBBENSEE is a doctoral student in counseling psychology

at ASU. Her research interests include topics related to values, the mean-
ing of life, and the relationship between physical and psychological con-
cerns. She is currently serving as deputy general counsel for ASU.

CHRISTINA M. VAN PUYMBROECK is a doctoral candidate in counsel-

ing psychology at ASU. She is currently completing her predoctoral intern-
ship at the University of Maryland Counseling Center. Christina’s
research interests include social justice issues and feminist and existen-
tial approaches to therapy. She recently published a chapter exploring fac-
tors influencing initiation and maintenance of drug use by Mexican Amer-
ican and European American women in a textbook on social influence in
multiple cultures.

Summary

Two-hundred and thirty-eight quotations from 195 eminent people

regarding their beliefs about the meaning of life were content ana-
lyzed. The main themes (in order of their frequency) are as follows:
“Life is to be enjoyed,” “We are here to love and help others,” “It is a
mystery,” “There is no cosmic meaning,” “We are here to serve or wor-
ship God,” “Life is a struggle,” “We must make a contribution to soci-
ety,” “Our mission in life is to seek wisdom/truth, and to become self-
actualized,” “We must create meaning for ourselves,” and “Life is
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 43 No. 1, Winter 2003 105-118
DOI: 10.1177/0022167802238816
© 2003 Sage Publications

105
106 The Meaning of Life

absurd or a joke.” Discussion focuses on the meaning of the results

and implications for practice.

Albert Camus (1955), Viktor Frankl (1992), and Leo Tolstoy (1980)
all believed that whether life had meaning was the most important
question in life. For them all human endeavors hinge on the issue
of meaning—without meaning, nothing matters. Frankl (1978)
viewed meaninglessness as the “primary neurosis of our time” (p. 2),
and Carl Jung (1933) claimed that all of his clients over 35 years
old had problems that were related to the question of meaning. In
empirical studies, the subjective experience of meaninglessness
has been linked to depression (Beck, 1967; Seligman, 1990) and
substance abuse and suicide (Harlow, Newcomb, & Bentler, 1986),
as well as to other psychopathologies (Yalom, 1980). Although
satirical approaches to the meaning of life elicit laughter (see, e.g.,
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life), the personal quest for mean-
ing is mostly not a laughing matter.
Yalom (1980) distinguished between two types of meaning: cos-
mic and terrestrial. Cosmic meaning refers to meaning that tran-
scends the individual. Cosmic meaning is usually viewed as
divinely inspired. Terrestrial meaning refers to that which is
deemed by any individual to be personally meaningful in his or her
life. Among the best known positions on the meaning of life are the
following:

(a) Life has no cosmic meaning and humans are doomed to insig-
nificance and inevitable extinction. This pessimistic position was
held by philosophers and writers such as Clarence Darrow (1932),
Bertrand Russell (1981), and Arthur Schopenhauer (1964). A pop-
ular corollary to this position is that the question about the mean-
ing of life itself is meaningless. Especially known for his pessimism
on this topic, Schopenhauer even extolled the act of suicide and
cursed romantic love because it was responsible for the continu-
ance of the pitiful human race (Durant, 1927).

(b) Life has no cosmic meaning but humans can create their own
meaning(s). Nietzsche (1957) was a pioneer of this perspective.
Existentialist philosophers like Camus (1955), deBeauvoir (1948),
and Sartre (1956) and the psychiatrist Erich Fromm (1947) fol-
lowed his lead. They believed that humans must find the courage
 Richard T. Kinnier et al. 107

to face the meaningless abyss and take responsibility for creating

meaning out of the chaos.

(c) Life may have cosmic meaning. Through honest and intensive
search humans can discover truths in life. This is the perspective
advocated by Frankl (1992). He believed that it was part of human
nature to search for the meaning of one’s existence. In contrast to
existentialists such as Camus and Sartre, Frankl believed that
transcendent meaning is not something that can be arbitrarily cre-
ated by a person. It can only be discovered.

(d) Life has a cosmic meaning but humans are incapable of com-
prehending the complexities of it. This is the perspective of most
religions. Advocates include the theologians Martin Buber (1970)
and Reinhold Neibuhr (1981), the psychologist William James
(1956), and writer Leo Tolstoy (1980). Faith and divine revelation
are the means by which humans can connect with (though not fully
comprehend) the meaning of life.

BELIEFS ABOUT
THE MEANING OF LIFE

Religions of the world vary in many of their rules for conduct

and rituals but their stated or implied views on the meaning of life
are strikingly similar (see Chalmers & Irving, 1965). The gist of it
is that God has given humans the gift of life. That gift comes with a
test. We must worship and obey God in order to pass the test. We
cannot hope to understand all of the complexities and mystery of
life. Instead, we must have faith and trust in God.
As an atheist, Freud (1964) viewed faith and trust in God as an
act of regression: We can avoid facing the depressing fact of cosmic
meaninglessness by believing in the existence of the supreme par-
ent, God. From a Freudian perspective, the continuing search for
meaning can serve to protect individuals from the depressing con-
clusion that life has no cosmic meaning. In contrast, humanistic
scholars like Buber (1970), Frankl (1992), and May (1953) believed
that the search for meaning, though often fraught with anxiety,
was one of the most noble and healthy of human endeavors.
108 The Meaning of Life

Klinger (1977) and Baumeister (1991) also noted that many people
do experience meaningfulness from the process of their search.
Where should one search for meaning? Humanistic psycholo-
gists agree that individuals ultimately must look within them-
selves, but part of that search should involve an open-minded con-
sideration of what others, especially mentorlike figures, have to
say on the topic. In their search for meaning, individuals naturally
turn to highly respected spiritual leaders, authority figures, or
those who are believed to be wise or self-actualized (Ebersole &
DeVogler-Ebersole, 1985). In that spirit, Will Durant (1932) asked
over 100 eminent people living during the early part of the 20th
century to state their beliefs about the meaning of life. The list
included Bertrand Russell, Mohandas Gandhi, and George Ber-
nard Shaw. More recently, the staff at Life magazine (Friend et al.,
1991) solicited responses from over 650 (mostly famous) people on
their beliefs on the meaning of life. One purpose of this line of
research is to provide individuals who are searching for meaning
(which includes many counselors and clients) with ideas that may
inspire them to clarify their values (Kinnier, 1995).
In this study we extend the research of Durant and others by
gathering quotes from a larger pool of eminent people. The emi-
nent people include political and spiritual leaders, writers and phi-
losophers, scientists and inventors, actors, and artists, past and
present. All of their quotes were screened and then content
analyzed.

METHOD

The Eminent People

The target population was eminent people. We are not suggest-
ing that eminent people have all the answers; they are just one
(rather unique) population who tend to be well respected by the
general population. Obviously, there are many individual differ-
ences within the population. This study is designed to tap their col-
lective wisdom.
In identifying eminent people we sought individuals who were
generally well known and well respected by a large number of peo-
ple at least inside, and preferably also outside, their professions.
 Richard T. Kinnier et al. 109

We wanted to exclude unknown people as well as well-known

celebrities who are mostly viewed as shallow or flashy. For exam-
ple, we wanted to include people like Albert Einstein, Jean Paul
Sartre, and Thomas Jefferson, but not people like Jerry Springer,
Larry Flint, and Monica Lewinsky. For a person to be included in
the analyses all four of us had to agree that the person was well
known and respected. In some cases, we postponed our group vote
until more information could be acquired about the person, either
through literature or from experts in their fields. Although we
attempted to minimize our biases through cross-checking and rig-
orous challenges to each other’s judgments, as well as through out-
side consultation, we recognize that the selection process obviously
was not bias-proof.
We wanted to insure a good representation of eminent minority
persons and women in our sample. To that end, we purposely
searched for such representatives and also consulted with people
who were especially knowledgeable about those particular groups
of people. For example, we consulted directors of academic pro-
grams in women’s studies and African American studies at a large
southwestern university.

The Quotes
Quotes about the meaning of life were gathered from many
sources. One source was Durant’s (1932) study. He sent letters to
more than 100 eminent people asking them an open-ended ques-
tion about their beliefs regarding the meaning of life (26 responses
were published). Another source was the book titled The Meaning
of Life, which was published by Life magazine (Friend et al., 1991).
That book contains the verbatim responses of 173 eminent and
noneminent people to a similar question. Additionally, we searched
any relevant literature we could find, including several of the well-
known books of quotations such as Bartlett’s (1968) Famous Quo-
tations, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988), and online
sources such as Gale’s Quotations (1995). We also invited col-
leagues and others to add to our growing collection by providing us
with quotes they had found.
Our initial collection of quotes totaled several hundred. Each
quote was reviewed by the four coauthors in group meetings. Only
those quotes that all four of us agreed explicitly or implicitly
110 The Meaning of Life

addressed the meaning-of-life question were included in the

analysis.

Extraction of the Themes

We used grounded theory and discovery-oriented procedures for
extracting the themes and then identifying them within the
quotes. Following suggestions of qualitative researchers such as
Colaizzi (1978), Glaser, (1978), LeCompte and Goetz, (1982), Miles
and Huberman (1984), Polkinghorne (1994), and Strauss (1987),
the following procedures were employed:

1. The four coauthors each independently read all of the quotes. We

each summarized themes we found. Themes were revised and
quotes were reviewed as needed.
2. The coauthors then met as a group and discussed the themes.
Quotes were reviewed in the group forum to understand and re-
solve discrepancies. The final list of 11 themes was revised and ap-
proved by consensus.
3. The coauthors then independently reviewed all of the quotes and
identified which, if any, theme captured the quote. A quote could be
categorized under one or more themes.
4. The coauthors again met as a group. A quote was “validated” as fit-
ting under a theme if at least three of the coauthors agreed that it
belonged there and the fourth coauthor did not strongly protest
(i.e., each coauthor had the power to veto any vote).
5. Finally, validated quotes within each theme category were counted.

RESULTS

A total of 238 quotations was approved at the initial screening.

These published quotes were either publicly stated or written by
195 eminent people (144 men and 51 women). Nine people were
identified as having an African heritage, the rest were White. Most
had lived during the 20th century, but 27 lived mostly during the
19th century and 23 had lived prior to the 19th century. Many of
the eminent people had more than one professional identification
(e.g., spiritual leader and writer). The most frequently identified
profession was writer and/or philosopher (n = 126). Other profes-
sional identities included artist/musician/actor (n = 23), scientist/
inventor (n = 20), political or business leader (n = 17), and spiritual
leader (n = 11). Two were prominent in the sports world.
 Richard T. Kinnier et al. 111

The Top 10 Themes

Although 11 themes were consensually validated, 1 theme,
“Life is a test,” had only one quote that was consensually vali-
dated. The remaining 10 themes had at least seven quotes that
were consensually validated. Table 1 displays the 10 themes and
the number of eminent people who “endorsed” each theme. As can
be seen, the number of endorsements ranged from 7 for “Life is
absurd or a joke” to 33 for “To enjoy or experience life.”

Descriptions of the major themes, percentages, and (some of) the

names of the eminent people who endorsed each theme, as well as
illustrative quotes, are summarized as follows.

1. To enjoy or experience life. Enjoy the “moment,” the “journey.” This

was the most frequently endorsed theme (by 17% of the sample).
Among the endorsers were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Malcolm Forbes,
Cary Grant, Janis Joplin, Thomas Jefferson, Helen Keller, Sinclair
Lewis, and Eleanor Roosevelt. For example, Emerson encouraged
his readers “to laugh often and much” and “to appreciate beauty”
(Neuhaus, 1956, p. 90). Malcolm Forbes observed that life “is a very
short trip—while alive, live!” (Jones, 1997, p. 66). And the lyric that
Janis Joplin is best known for is “You got to get it while you can”
(Partnow, 1977, p. 455). Sinclair Lewis nicely captured the idea that
life can be enjoyed even if that is all there is. He wrote:

If I go to a play I do not enjoy it less because I do not believe

that it is divinely created or divinely conducted, that it will
last forever instead of stopping at eleven, that many details of
it will remain in my memory after a few months, or that it will
have any particular moral effect on me. And I enjoy life as I
enjoy that play. (Durant, 1932, p. 38)

2. To love, help, or serve others. To show or experience compassion. This

theme was endorsed by 13% of the sample, including Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, Clarence Darrow, Albert Einstein, Mohandas
Gandhi, Theodore Hesburg, the Dalai Lama, Albert Schweitzer,
and Jean Jacques Rousseau. For example, Einstein stated that
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile” (Bartlett, 1968, p. 950).
Viktor Frankl (1992, p. 115) believed that “love is the ultimate and
highest goal to which man [sic] can aspire. The salvation of man is
through love and in love”. One of the greatest models for service to
humanity was Mohandas Gandhi. He said, “My consolation and my
happiness are to be found in service of all that lives, because the Di-
vine essence is the sum total of all life” (Durant, 1932, p. 84).
3. Life is a mystery. This theme was also endorsed by 13% of the sam-
ple, including Albert Camus, Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, Betty
112 The Meaning of Life

TABLE 1: The Top 10 Themes on the Meaning of Life, According to 195

Eminent People

No. of Eminent
People Who % of
Rank Theme Endorsed the Theme Sample

1 To enjoy or experience life; enjoy

the “moment,” the “journey” 33 17
2.5 To love, help, or serve others; to show
or experience compassion 25 13
2.5 Life is a mystery 25 13
4.5 Life is meaningless 21 11
4.5 To serve or worship God and/or
prepare for the next (or after-) life 21 11
6 Life is a struggle 16 8
7.5 To contribute to something that is
greater than ourselves 11 6
7.5 To become self-actualized; to develop
or “evolve” as a person or as a species;
to pursue truth(s), wisdom, or a higher
level of being 11 6
9 To create your own meaning 10 5
10 Life is absurd or a joke 7 4

Friedan, Søren Kierkegaard, Napoleon, Stephen Hawking, and

Martin Buber. For example, Camus (1955, p. 51) said, “I don’t know
whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know
that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me to
know.” More recently, Stephen Hawking (1992, p. 175) exclaimed
that “If we find an answer to that (why we and the universe exist), it
would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we
would know the mind of God.”
4. Life is meaningless. This (most pessimistic) but rather popular
theme was endorsed by 11% of the sample, including Joseph
Conrad, Clarence Darrow, Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka, H. L.
Mencken, Henry Miller, Bertrand Russell, Jean Paul Sartre, Arthur
Schopenhauer, and George Bernard Shaw. For example, Joseph
Conrad referred to life as “that mysterious arrangement of merci-
less logic for a futile purpose” (Gale’s Quotations, 1995). Sartre
(1956, p. 547) proclaimed that “it is meaningless that we are born; it
is meaningless that we die.” George Bernard Shaw once likened life
to a disease, “and the only difference between one man [sic] and an-
other is the stage of the disease at which he lives” (Gale’s Quota-
tions, 1995). The pessimism implied by this theme was poetically
captured by Clarence Darrow (1932, p. 43) when he compared life to
a ship that is “tossed by every wave and by every wind; a ship
 Richard T. Kinnier et al. 113

headed to no port and no harbor, with no rudder, no compass, no pi-

lot, simply floating for a time, then lost in the waves.”
5. To serve or worship God and/or prepare for the next (or after-) life.
Not surprisingly, this theme was endorsed by spiritual leaders such
as Mohandas Gandhi, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama. It was also endorsed by more
secular eminent people such as Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela,
Thomas Paine, and General William Westmoreland. In total, 11% of
the sample endorsed the theme. For example, Muhammad Ali re-
ferred to life as “only a preparation for the eternal home, which is
far more important than the short pleasures that seduce us here”
(Gale’s Quotations, 1995). Desmond Tutu said that in life we should
“give God glory by reflecting His beauty and His love. That is why
we are here and that is the purpose of our lives” (Friend et al., p. 13).
Martin Luther King, Jr., said it most succinctly—“I just want to do
God’s will” (Simpson, 1988, p. 231).
6. Life is a struggle. This theme was endorsed by 8% of the sample, in-
cluding Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Edna St. Vincent
Millay, George Bernard Shaw, and Jonathan Swift. For example, in
his book Nicholas Nickelby, Charles Dickens referred to life as “one
damned horrid grind” (Gale’s Quotations, 1995). Jonathan Swift de-
scribed life as “a tragedy wherein we sit as spectators for awhile
and then act our part in it” (Gale’s Quotations, 1995). And Disraeli
reflected that “youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a re-
gret” (Bartlett, 1968, p. 612).
7. To contribute to something that is greater than ourselves. This
theme was endorsed by 6% of the sample, including Will Durant,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Faulkner, Benjamin Franklin,
Horace Mann, Margaret Mead, Richard Nixon, and Mohandas
Gandhi. For example, the philosopher Will Durant (1932, pp. 128-
129) believed that the meaning of life “lies in the chance it gives us
to produce or contribute to something greater than ourselves.” Em-
erson believed that our task was to “leave the world a bit better”
(Neuhaus, 1956, p. 90), and Horace Mann said that “you should be
ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity”
(Bartlett, 1968, p. 586). George Bernard Shaw eloquently reflected
that “the true joy in life is being used for a purpose recognized by
yourself as a mighty one” (Simpson, 1988, p. 240).
8. To become self-actualized. To develop or “evolve” as a person or as a
species. To pursue truth(s), wisdom, or a higher level of being. This
theme was endorsed by 6% of the sample, including Marie Curie,
Erich Fromm, Frederick Nietzsche, Plato, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross,
Robert Louis Stevenson, and Henry David Thoreau. For Fromm
(1947, p. 237), “man’s [sic] main task in life is to give birth to him-
self, to become what he potentially is.” Similarly, Robert Louis
Stevenson argued that “to become what we are capable of becoming
is the only end of life” (Bartlett, 1968, p. 822). And recall why
Thoreau went to the woods. He said, “I wished to live deliberately, to
front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what
114 The Meaning of Life

it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had
not lived” (Bartlett, 1968, p. 683).
9. To create your own meaning. This theme was endorsed by 5% of the
sample, including Sidney Hook, Grandma Moses, Carl Sagan,
Simone deBeauvoir, John Dewey, Viktor Frankl, and Carl Jung. For
example, Grandma Moses stated “Life is what we make it, always
has been, always will be” (Warner, 1992, p. 133). Carl Sagan de-
scribed what he saw as the “hard truth”:

We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns

are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an
obscure clod of rock. The significance of our lives and our frag-
ile realm derives from our own wisdom and courage. We are
the custodians of life’s meaning” (Friend et al., 1991, p. 73).

10. Life is absurd or a joke. This theme was endorsed by 4% of the sam-
ple, including Albert Camus, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Dylan, Lou
Reed, and Oscar Wilde. Perhaps the person best known for seeing
life as absurd was Albert Camus, who said, “The absurd is the es-
sential concept and the first truth” (Bartlett, 1968, p. 1068). Charlie
Chaplin once described life as “a tragedy when seen in close-up but
a comedy in the long shot” (cited in Gale’s Quotations, 1995). The
rock star Lou Reed (1992) likened our ability to understand life to
reading “Sanskrit to a pony.” Finally, Bob Dylan (1968) observed
that “there are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke”
(from “All Along the Watchtower”).

DISCUSSION

To reiterate, we are not suggesting that eminent people are nec-

essarily wiser than the rest of us and thus have all the answers.
They are, however, a unique population. Generally, the population
is well respected and their ideas may have a particular merit worth
considering. Those individuals who are searching for the meaning
of life may benefit from contemplating what others have concluded
as they formulate their own ideas. It is also important to note that
our sample is not a random sample of eminent people. Our original
pool consisted of every eminent person we could find who had said
something that was published about the meaning of life. Obviously,
the biggest weakness of this study was our biases—we selected the
people and the quotes, and we formulated the themes. Although
the results admittedly may have been affected by our values, we
did follow procedures designed to minimize our individual biases.
We also believe that as a group we have no significant systematic
 Richard T. Kinnier et al. 115

biases in regard to who should be considered eminent, which

quotes are about the meaning of life, and which themes are
represented.
It was not our purpose to classify the eminent people according
to their beliefs about the meaning of life. Many of the eminent peo-
ple expressed many, sometimes even contradictory, beliefs about
the meaning of life at different times in their lives. This is certainly
understandable, as life events, age, maturity, and moods can influ-
ence how any of us view meaning at any particular point in time. A
wonderful example of this comes from Sartre. He is perhaps the
most famous atheist of the 20th century. Yet just before his death,
he apparently converted to theism. At that time he stated,

I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the

universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In
short, a being whom only a Creator could put here, and this idea of a
creating hand refers to God (Schwarz, 1984, p. 122).

Thus, it was not our intention to classify where eminent people

are on the issue of meaning. Rather we were interested in the
themes that would emerge from the group of eminent people. The
unit of study was therefore the group, not particular individuals.
One more comment on the meaning of the results—the percent-
age that each theme was cited might be seen as small—the highest
percentage was just 17%. In our view, these percentages are under-
estimates because of the stringent requirement for inclusion, that
is, consensus or near consensus of four judges. We decided to err on
the side of conservatism—a higher percentage of the group may
well endorse each of those themes.
From another perspective, however, it does make sense that any
heterogeneous group of individuals would present a variety of
responses to such a general and complicated question regarding
the meaning of life. The “group answer” is complex and contradic-
tory. No unitary consensual theme emerged.

Implications for Counseling

Most individuals seek meaning in their lives. The search typi-
cally involves introspection and consultation—consultation with
friends, family members, and mentors, as well as with literature,
poetry, and song lyrics. We view the results of this study as just
116 The Meaning of Life

another source of amalgamated wisdom. The themes and illustra-

tive quotes can serve as a stimulus for thought and discussion.

Conclusion
We conclude this article with what we believe is the central mes-
sage from our eminent (involuntary) persons. Admittedly, this
summary is our subjective portrait of the main ideas expressed. We
wrote it as if all of these unique and special people had to speak in
one (group) voice. Based on our sense of the data, here is what we
guess such a group voice might say about the meaning of life:
The point of it all—if there is one—remains a mystery. Perhaps
the human mind is simply incapable of grasping such a profound
idea as the meaning of life. The ever-present, lurking possibility is
that there is no cosmic meaning at all. Life certainly can be a strug-
gle, unfair, and cruel. At times it all seems absurd or even a joke. On
the other hand, there also seems to be at least some hope that life
has meaning. It may be what we make it to be, but the meaning
may also transcend us. We at least sometimes sense that we are
part of something bigger than ourselves. We are all connected in
some mysterious way. Life is a gift, an opportunity. While alive we
should live fully, savor the experience, enjoy the journey. But we
also have responsibilities. We are here to evolve into better and
wiser people so that humanity may also evolve spiritually. We are
here to pursue truths and knowledge. If we find truths we must
stand up for them. We are here to serve and love others. Finally, our
task is to contribute something positive to society and to the spiri-
tual evolution of humankind. We should leave the world a better
place than we found it. Only then will we deserve to “rest in peace.”

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