quotations about destiny
The real test of a man is not how well he plays the role he has invented for himself, but how well he plays the role that destiny assigned to him.
JAN PATOCKA
attributed, In Pursuit of Destiny
Destiny is in reality a pompous word that means very little. If we have great talents, it will probably be our destiny to show them. If we have no talents, it will certainly be our destiny to show none.
ANONYMOUS
The Spectator, Aug. 2, 1884
From someone who doesn't want to share your destiny, you should neither accept a cigarette.
CESARE PAVESE
The Burning Brand
Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.
HENRY MILLER
attributed, The Harper Book of Quotations
Motive is internal, work is external, destiny is eternal.
THOMAS ROBERT SLICER
Meditations
Destiny, the complicity of mankind in the self-disclosure of Being, must be freely chosen.
RICHARD ROJCEWICZ
The Gods and Technology
Realizing a destiny is not a matter of acquiescing in some form of relentless causality. If it were, there would be no sin. A destiny can be failed or refused. That is why it is not a fate. True, the very word "destiny" is indicative of necessity, but the necessity of a destiny is not like the necessity that makes an object fall when it is dropped. Rather, it is the kind I recognize when I face a duty I am tempted to evade and say to myself, "This I must do."
GREGORY WOLFE
The New Religious Humanists
A girl with a good figure can often shape her own destiny.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.
AGNES DE MILLE
Dance to the Piper
An unjust destiny is at variance with the will of the Almighty; a just destiny is merely the expression of his will: in no case is there room for destiny outside and above the deity. There is therefore no destiny apart from the will of God. By obedience to that will man may escape from evil, by opposing it he may bring evil on himself and his descendants.
EVELYN ABBOT
Hellenica
Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
There's a destiny that shapes our ends, but most women put more faith in a girdle.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Every destiny is honourable. But it is a pity if you don't know your placement in life. The hardest work so far in life is to be able to locate your place where you belong here on earth. The fingers are placed in the hands; the toes are placed on the legs; the nose is placed in the head. Locate your placement in life.
HARRISON ENUDI
Fulfilling Your Destiny with Ease
Who recollects distinctly his past adventures, knows his destiny to come.
JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
God is the author and finisher of your destiny. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of your destiny. He is the only one that can show you your destiny. As far as He is your manufacturer, He is the only one that can show you what you are fashioned to do.
HARRISON ENUDI
Fulfilling Your Destiny with Ease
The world's definition of the word "destiny" is a person's lot or fate in life. In the world's eyes, God has nothing to do with it; it's pure luck. But God's definition is totally different because it is based in Him, not luck, lot or fortune. In my words, God's definition of the word "destiny" is "the fulfillment of the calling God has placed upon your life."
CAROLYN ANDERSON
Standing in These Last Days
Motive is causative, work is operative, destiny is resultant.
THOMAS ROBERT SLICER
Meditations
Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen.
T. S. ELIOT
Murder in the Cathedral
With his unique destiny each man stands, so to speak, alone in the entire cosmos. His destiny will not recur. No one else has the same potentialities as he, nor will he himself be given them again. The opportunities that come his way for the actualization of creative or experiential values, the tribulations which are destined to come his way--which he cannot alter and must therefore endure and in the enduring of them actualize attitudinal values--all these are unique and singular.
VIKTOR EMIL FRANKL
The Doctor and the Soul
Both body and life are predetermined, and the man has nothing to say in the matter: the individual is predetermined by the Great Will. The man is thus predestined, through the fact of his individuality, to a possible specific destiny; but, after the individuality is determined, he is given over to his own will, and his destiny is put into his own hands.
JOHN PHELPS FRUIT
"The Destiny of Marriage: Portia and the Caskets"