I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.
- Leo Rosten

I found this quote on Caterina Fake’s blog, and I had to share it in some form or another; since it’s too long for Twitter, here it is.  I very much identify with the sentiment about happiness.  I think how you define a “difference that you lived at all” is a very personal thing, but I suppose I agree with the latter half of the quote as well.

I read very few blogs that aren’t technical or related to Pittsburgh, but one of the few exceptions is Caterina’s blog.  Though she is both a native of Pittsburgher and a technologist (co-founder of both Twitter and Hunch), her blog posts tend to be about literature or introspection.  She doesn’t post often, but if you’re looking for something to supplement your functional feeds, you might try http://www.caterina.net/.