Quotes & Sayings About Destiny And Choices

I wonder where we are going," I said.
"Wherever the way is going," Exi replied calmly.
"But where do you suppose the way is going?"
"Wherever we go."
"That doesn't really make sense, does it?"
"Oh, yes. Quite good sense."
"Why?"
"Do you know any method by which you can go way and your path another? Not the path, but your path?"
"Well-" I hesitated. "Well, if you put it that way, I guess not. But what about crossroads? Couldn't you choose the wrong one?"
"I suppose you could. However, if it was the wrong way you chose, it would still be your way, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," I answered, "yes, it probably would. — Sheila Moon

All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete,or a scientist, or an independent business creator. in service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self. Becoming a parent is one of these basic human transformational deeds. By this act, we change our fundamental relationship with the universe- if nothing else, we lose our place as the pinnacle and end-point of evolution, and become a mere link. The demands of motherhood especially consume the old self, and replace it with something new, often better and wiser, sometimes wearier or disillusioned, or tense and terrified, certainly more self-knowing, but never the same again. — Lois McMaster Bujold

Dreaming of a luxurious life and to be rich is very good. You must put all your efforts but it will happen at a certain time in your life because it depends upon your readiness, the beliefs you hold and the choices you make to achieve it. — Hina Hashmi

You have a lot of predictors for serial killer behavior, I know - in fact, I think you have more predictors than I've ever seen in one person. But you have to remember that predictors are just that - they predict what might happen, they don't prophesy what will happen. Ninety five percent of serial killers wet their beds and light fires and hurt animals, but that doesn't mean that ninety-five percent of kids who do those things will become serial killers. You are always in control of your own destiny, and you are always the one who makes your own choices - no one else. — Dan Wells

So, your saying choices and destiny shape the course of our lives? I think so, yes. It's just easier to blame fate for all of the mistakes. — Gena Showalter

Since no man ever can, or could, live by himself and for himself alone, the destinies of thousands of other people were bound to be affected, some remotely, but some very directly and near-at-hand, by my own choices and decisions and desires, as my own life would also be formed and modified according to theirs. — Thomas Merton

doesn't matter if we don't mean to do the things we do. It doesn't matter if it was an accident or a mistake. It doesn't even matter if we think this is all up to fate. Because regardless of our destiny, we still have to answer for our actions. We make choices, big and small, every day of our lives, and those choices have consequences. We have to face those consequences head-on, for better or worse. We don't get to erase them just by saying we didn't mean to. Fate or not, our lives are still the results of our choices. I'm starting to think that when we don't own them, we don't own ourselves. — Taylor Jenkins Reid

If I can believe believe that the heavens have blessed me with a tiger-spirited daughter, then how can I doubt the existence of a Dragon Musado?" he said.

Kira didn't know how to react to her father's words.

"I believe that one person can change the world. Whether he is the Musado or a girl with a tiger spirit. The monks teach that we mere mortals cannot question fate. But I say that we control destiny by our every action. Our power lies in the choices we make." Her father placed his warm hand on her cheek. "In the choices you make. Remember, stay true to yourself and do what your heart tells you is right, and not what is easy. — Ellen Oh

The first evil choice or act is linked to the second; and each one to the one that follows, both by the tendency of our evil nature and by the power of habit, which holds us as by a destiny — Tryon Edwards

Your destiny is what you make. It's the choices that you make. And for every choice, there's a consequence. — Triple H

Is biology destiny? And the answer is yes, sometimes it is. Women who have the fewest choices of all exercise their right to abortion the most. — Sallie Tisdale

A person meets thousands of different people across a lifetime, a woman thousands of different men, of all shades, and many more if she constantly passes through different parts of the world. Even so, of the many different people a person on average meets it is rare for one to fit almost immediately in harmony and general interest. For all the choices available the odds are enormous.The miracle is there to be grasped. — Murray Bail

What the fates have writ, men shall not erase . . . . How many times he [Lut] had uttered those words. But what exactly did they mean? That one's fate was inalterably fixed? A man's entire life? Was there no chance for redemption? Though he had never revealed this to anyone, especially not the elders, he'd long entertained the notion that perhaps not all of a man's life was preordained. For, if so, what was the point of living? Perhaps, just perhaps, he dared to imagine, impediments were placed in our paths by the gods, and a man was judged by how well he dealt with those obstacles . . . . Instead of a man being wholly defined by his fate, perhaps a man's very character was defined by his response to the fate that was spun for him. Couldn't it at least be possible? — James Jennewein

ultimately, life is all about choices. One's destiny unfolds according to the choices one makes, and — Robin S. Sharma

Every choice we have ever made equals who we are in this moment. If tomorrow comes, choose wisely. — Willie Herath

Think there's a culture of Silicon Valley that seems to have the attitude that you can have it both ways, that you can be an insurgent but also, ultimately, it's paid for by advertising, when in fact advertising is totally retrograde. Now that's an industry we should be disrupting, and maybe you disrupt it by funding public media. None of this is technological destiny; there are only social choices. — Astra Taylor

Our destinies are riddled with challenges that have a tendency to ruin well laid plans. Many have attempted to take fate into their own hands and have been unsuccessful in changing it.
Others find that their paths differ from what they have dreamed for themselves. We must be aware that our choices may come back to haunt us later in life, but to trust that is is all part of fate's desing. — Peter Koevari

Sometimes our connection is frayed, it is in danger, it seems almost lost. Views and streets deny knowledge of us, the air grows thin. Wouldn't we rather have a destiny to submit to, than, something that claims us, anything, instead of such flimsy choices, arbitrary days? — Alice Munro

For each of us destiny is a blend of potential, circumstances, and choices. — Brandon Mull

Your circumstance is ultimately tied to your choices; you create your own destiny. Individual development is up to you - it is your responsibility. You have all eternity to grow and progress to become all you can be. Whether the journey is swift of protracted is ultimately in your hands. — Mark Ireland

Failing to meet your true destiny is a tragic act of free will. — Anthon St. Maarten

Remember that the choices you make, and the reasons you make them, shape your destiny. Remember your free will ... And remember, what the True One has made is supposed to bring balance and unity, not anger, fear or revenge. Do not fear, what is yours to use. Only beware the ends to which it is turned, and know the means will truly determine the outcome. — Derek Donais

If all you do is set goals and achieve them then you have learned to be a doer. Happiness isn't at the end of the next goal. It is the journey of aligning your choices to mold your character into the type of person who lives their belief system, then creates a life purpose that reflects that same person. — Shannon L. Alder

The world is a classroom - life is the teacher and the subjects are learned everyday from the successes, failures, changes twists, turns, surprises and contradictions - some brought about through choices and others pre-ordained by destiny. — Eugenie Laverne Mitchell

The life you yearn of living and your destiny is co-created in your here-and-now awareness, choices made and actions taken. Live NOW. Don't wait till death bed wishing,... — Sue Ziang

Life is like authoring a novel, our choices write the chapters that decide our path, destiny, and if you're blessed, a happy ending. — Brandie Knight

We create our own destiny by the way we do things. We have to take advantage of opportunities and be responsible for our choices. — Benjamin Carson

Believe it or not, the notions of free will and destiny are not mutually exclusive.
Predestination is the universal framework of limits (based on natural physical laws) placed upon us.
Free will is our infinite ability to make choices within that framework.
Because the universal scale is so great - and most of it constitutes an undiscovered frontier - our choices are only limited by our knowledge, our abilities, and our imagination.
To put it simply, the world is such a huge playground sandbox that we will never run out of sand or reach the faraway safety fence of destiny.
So go out there and play! — Vera Nazarian

What I believe is that when it comes to big things in life, there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason. You are here for a reason
and it's not to fail and die. — Ransom Riggs

I believe in the ability to choose. I believe this life is made up of our choices and their consequences - the good and the bad. I do not believe in letting anything up to fate. We are the makers of our own destinies, our own futures, our own paths. To blindly follow is an insult to the miracle of being human. To be human is to make choices; the moment you allow others to make decisions for you is the moment you do an injustice to not only mankind but to yourself. — Kelseyleigh Reber

Men speak of blind destiny, a thing without scheme or purpose. But what sort of destiny is that? Each act in this world from which there can be no turning back has before it another, and it another yet. In a vast and endless net. Men imagine that the choices before them are theirs to make. But we are free to act only upon what is given. Choice is lost in the maze of generations and each act in that maze is itself an enslavement for it voids every alternative and binds one ever more tightly into the constraints that make a life. If the dead man could have forgiven his enemy for whatever wrong was done to him all would have been otherwise. Did the son set out to avenge his father? Did the dead man sacrifice his son? Our plans are predicated upon a future unknown to us. The world takes its form hourly by a weighing of things at hand, and while we may seek to puzzle out that form we have no way to do so. We have only God's law, and the wisdom to follow it if we will. — Cormac McCarthy

All souls make choices throughout their lives, some are good and some are evil - their fate with the universe has no bearing on those choices. Their choices permit them to be whole or to remain fragmented — Nancy Straight

You are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny. — Roy T. Bennett

Your destiny lies in your hands and can be molded with each passing day by the choices you make — Sunday Adelaja

Listen, John," said Neblin, leaning forward. "You have a lot of predictors for serial-killer behavior, I know - in fact, I think you have more predictors than I've ever seen in one person. But you have to remember that predictors are just that - they predict what might happen, they don't prophesy what will happen. Ninety-five percent of serial killers wet their beds and light fires and hurt animals, but that doesn't mean that ninety-five percent of kids who do those things will become serial killers. You are always in control of your own destiny, and you are always the one who makes your own choices - no one else. The fact that you have those rules, and that you follow them so carefully, says a lot about you and your character. You're a good person, John. — Dan Wells

To step into tomorrow's possibilities you must let go of yesterday's realities. Be careful of your choices between what was, is and will be. It is very hard to fully step into your destiny while you are still holding on to your history. — Christine Caine

I believe that we have free will. I believe we get the chance to make choices in our lives. Not everything is set in stone from the moment we're born. We choose our destiny, our ultimate fate. But I also think that we don't realize the choices we've made until after we make them. We're racing down a freeway, only to realize we've missed all the exits, and the only direction we can go is dead ahead. — Neal Shusterman

You always have a choice. Destiny deals you your hand and what you do with the cards is up to you — Kenneth Eade

Allow yourself to think only those thoughts that match your principles and can bear the bright light of day. Day by day, your choices, your thoughts, your actions fashion the person you become. Your integrity determines your destiny. — Heraclitus

Drea, believe and follow your heart, Remember that the choices you made will lead you to your destiny. — Josie Zapanta Stewart

A plot, I used to remind my students, is not merely a sequence of events: "A" followed by "B" followed by "C" followed by "D." Rather, it's a series of events linked by cause and effect: "A" causes "B," which causes "C," and so on. True, a person's (or a fictional character's) destiny may be more than the sum of his choices
fate and luck play a role as well
but only scientists (and not all of them) believe that free will is a sham. People in life
and therefore in fiction
must choose, and their choices must have meaningful consequences. Otherwise, there's no story. — Richard Russo

There but for the... good choices I've made, genetics, psychological conditioning, and 10K random elements, go I. — Daniel Ionson

What must be done must be done, whatever the price, the cost, the pain. One day we all must walk through fire. — David Hewson

Every day you feel like you can't control the forces affecting your fate-your job,the government,your addiction,your depression,your money. So you stage micro-revolts. You customise your ringtone,you paint your room,you collect stamps. You choose.
Choices,even small ones,can hold back the crushing weight of helplessness,but you can't stop there. You must fight back your behavoir and learn to fail with pride. Failing often is the only way to ever get the things you want out of life. Besides death your destiny is not inescapable.
You are not so smart,but you are smarter than dogs and rats.
Don't give in yet. — David McRaney

Cultivate the habit of making aware choice. Your choice makes your destiny. Do not be carried away by the unconscious choices. — Amit Ray

Destiny is defined by your choices, decisions, and determination. — Debasish Mridha

There are certain mortal moments and minutes that matter. Certain hingepoints in the history of each human. Some seconds are so decisive they shrink the soul, while others are spent, so as to stretch the soul. — Neal A. Maxwell

Men who've made choices always feel they own their destiny. Few ever think to ask who shaped and offered up those choices. Who dangles the carrot they think they've chosen to follow. — Mark Lawrence

Life is not a matter of choices! Life is handed to you, a couple of cards that have cycled through the grimy hands of hundreds of players before you. There are no aces hidden up your sleeve. There is no shortcut to success and happiness. Sleight of hand will only earn you a bloody nose and a thrashing in the alley outback. So instead, you play the few good cards you have and do what you can with the bad, and you play fair. There is no choice. — Kelseyleigh Reber

And so it is, that if you believe it you can honestly choose what you want to be. But choose carefully, with your intuition, and have the courage to trust your choice! It is vital that we allow our self the privilege of quite space, for it is there we discover the passion that drives us to our heart's desire, to our destiny. — Braam Malherbe

Destiny is not a matter of fate, it is a matter of choice, and we have some choices to be made here. — Mario Gonzalez

But for us there are moments, O, how solemn, when destiny trembles in the balance and the preponderance of either scale is by our own choice. — Mark Hopkins

But circumstances change. Small causes lead to large effects. New paths are added.
And all anyone can do ... is choose. — Kelseyleigh Reber

I think that both our lives and the potential directions our lives may go are predestined. By using our free will in making our life choices, we do nothing else but picking up one of many already predestined options. To us, it seems like we were making the decision, while in reality, we just selected one of many possibilities that were already a part of our destiny. — Stevan V. Nikolic

Strength of character is never with those who blindly follow. You need to be able to make your own choices and walk your own path. — Celeste Lim

I didn't think meanness was ever in anyone's destiny. Meanness was a choice. — Liesl Shurtliff

Plato spoke of the Sisters of Fate on the last 3 pages of his book, "The Republic" when he said: "Then the Sisters of Fate take all of our choices and weave them on their loom into the fabric of destiny. Hear the word of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be allotted to you, but you will choose your genius; and let him who draws the first lot have the first choice, and the life which he chooses shall be his destiny. Virtue is free, and as a man honors' or dishonors her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser - God is justified" [Quote from Plato's Republic written 360BCE In the Public Domain] — D.M. Hoover

To what extent does anybody control his destiny? Life is very much like falling of the edge of a cliff. You have complete freedom to make all the choices you want to take on your way down. My characters choose to yearn and not lose hope even when the odds are completely against them. It doesn't make the landing at the end of that fall any less painful but, somehow, it helps them keep a little dignity their bone broken body. — Etgar Keret

We pick and choose who to love. We pick and choose who to hate. We pick and choose our friends and ignore those that invade our space.
We pick and choose who should live. We pick and choose who should die. We pick and choose who we say hello to and ignore a dying loners cry.
We pick and choose who to be real to. We pick and choose to be fake to. We pick and choose who is worthy of our affections or beneath us or we can relate to.
We pick and choose our dreams. We pick and choose our destiny. We pick and choose what we think will bring out the best in me.
We pick and choose to reach the pinnacle. We pick and choose because of our power of choice. We sometimes pick and choose while never really considering the consequences of our voice. — Delaine Robins

True success in this life comes in consecrating our lives - that is, our time and choices - to God's purposes. In so doing, we permit Him to raise us to our highest destiny. — D. Todd Christofferson

We all have certain desires and undesired outcomes related to whatever possible course and attitude we take in life, whether it be at the larger macro scale (what shall I do with the rest of my life?) or at the micro level (as in, what route shall I take to work this morning). These include all the myriad choices we make each hour and each day. These choices determine our karma and our destiny. It's no accident, nor any great mystery, how this evolves; although one would have to utterly omniscient to understand all the many gross and subtle interconnections and causative links that determine happenings and outcomes. — Lama Surya Das

That each man is the sum of his choices is nothing less than the truth. And each, perhaps, is also something else. — Joseph O'Connor

What is destiny more than an end result? If there is such thing as destiny it must change. With every thought we think, every word we utter, every choice we make our destiny adjusts to fit the consequences of that choice. — Eve S. Nicholson

If you don't make a choice, life makes it for you and then you're stuck with what it decides. Take control of your destiny so that doesn't happen — Stewart Stafford

Your destiny is not predetermined, It is determined by the choices you make and those you choose not to make. — Deon Potgieter

I used to think that destiny was fluid, because isn't that the point of every Disney movie and Saturday-morning cartoon? You make your own choices. You decide how life goes. I always thought that your fate line would change if something happened, bam, something goes wrong and the line on your palm goes all wonky to reflect that. Nope. It still looks fine. — Amy Zhang

Consciousness is a mystery that faces the mystery of potential and transforms it into actuality. We do that with every choice we make. Our choices determine the destiny of the world. By making a choice, you alter the structure of reality — Jordan Petersen

Love couldn't be moved by circumstance, poor choices, or even blatant lies - skewed and damaged, yes, but the heart couldn't deny what it wanted most once the desire was planted. Whether in bliss or affliction, love owned you all the same. — Rachael Wade

My worth changes with every choice I make and every action I take. I can choose myself to uselessness or to being valuable. — Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

Often our thoughts, choices and actions are not aligned to reach our desired goals and we prefer to call it destiny. — Anupama Garg

Humanity cannot afford to muddle through the rest of the twentieth century; the risks are too great, and the stakes are too high. This may be the last opportunity to choose our own and our descendants' destiny. Failing to choose or making the wrong choices may lead to catastrophe. But it must never be forgotten that the right choices could lead to a much better world. — John Holdren

Every brush stroke on the canvas, every dab of color introduced, the fine textures impressed in the paint - this accumulation of many small acts combines to shape a final work of art. And so it is with life; each step, each deed, each brief choice builds gradually, day by day, to shape both character and destiny. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Big Idea
Your days are your life in miniature. As you live your hours, so you create your years. As you live your days, so you craft your life. What you do today is actually creating your future. The words you speak, the thoughts you think, the food you eat and the actions you take are defining your destiny - shaping who you are becoming and what your life will stand for. Small choices lead to giant consequences over time. There's no such thing as an unimportant day. — Robin S. Sharma

Each person's destiny is not a matter of chance; it's a matter of choice. It's determined by what we say, what we do, and whom we trust. — S. Truett Cathy

You have to choose the life you want. You have to take action and realize that you create your own destiny by making choices and sticking to them. — Robin Bielman

Fate is how your life unfolds when you let fear determine your choices. A path of destiny reveals itself to you, however, when you confront your fear and make conscious choices. — Caroline Myss

Letting the greens dictate your energy choices, whether it's halting the XL Pipeline or fracking in New York, isn't just bad economics. It can also leave your rivals and enemies controlling your energy destiny. — Arthur L. Herman