Quotes about Destiny
Suppose that a god announced that you were going to die tomorrow "or the day after." Unless you were a complete coward you wouldn't kick up a fuss about which day it was—what difference could it make? Now recognize that the difference between years from now and tomorrow is just as small.
— Marcus Aurelius
So there are two reasons to embrace what happens. One is that it's happening to you. It was prescribed for you, and it pertains to you. The thread was spun long ago, by the oldest cause of all.
— Marcus Aurelius
Whatsoever is, was made for something: as a horse, a vine. Why wonderest thou? The sun itself will say of itself, I was made for something; and so hath every god its proper function. What then were thou made for? to disport and delight thyself? See how even common sense and reason cannot brook it.
— Marcus Aurelius
Willingly therefore, and wholly surrender up thyself unto that fatal concatenation, yielding up thyself unto the fates, to be disposed of at their pleasure.
— Marcus Aurelius
Love only what befalls thee and is spun for thee by fate. For what can be more befitting for thee?
— Marcus Aurelius
Did not he, then, who, if he had died at that time, would have died in all his glory, owe all the great and terrible misfortunes into which he subsequently fell to the prolongation of his life at that time?
— Cicero
Such regrets are of no practical use. I made choices, and then, having made them, I had fewer choices. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I took the one most travelled by. It was littered with corpses, as such roads are. But as you will have noticed, my own corpse is not among them.
— Margaret Atwood
It was true, I took too much for granted; I trusted fate, back then.
— Margaret Atwood
The answer can only be that God has given Adam free will, and therefore Adam may do things that God Himself cannot anticipate in advance.
— Margaret Atwood
If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans, as used to be said; though in present day, the idea of God laughing is next door to blasphemy. An ultra-serious fellow, God is now.
— Margaret Atwood
If the average person realized the power he wields over his life and destiny, he would live in a perpetual state of wonder and thanksgiving.
— Earl Nightingale
Everything starts with one person... I don't care if you're 5 or 105, God from all eternity chose you to be where you are, at this time in history, to change the world.
— Mother Angelica