Kaci Baum

50 Stunning Quotes About Discovering Your Destiny

Maybe there isn’t such a thing as fate. Maybe it’s just the opportunities we’re given, and what we do with them. 
Holly Riordan
February 23, 2017
“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.”
— Thomas Merton, Love And Living
Tagged: Destiny, Love, Meaning
“What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.”
— Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
Tagged: Destiny, Change, character
“Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.”
— Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind
Tagged: Destiny, Hooker, Thief
“There are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore.”
— Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle
Tagged: Destiny, Future, Fate
“Don't confuse poor decision -- making with destiny. Own your mistakes. It’s ok. We all make them. Learn from them so they can empower you!”
— Steve Maraboli, Life, The Truth, and Being Free
Tagged: Destiny, Decisions, Mistakes
“We are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”
— Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel
Tagged: Destiny, Failure, Success
“Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.”
— John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Tagged: Destiny, Souls, Future
“Almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. Destiny has no beeper; destiny always leans trenchcoated out of an alley with some sort of 'psst' that you usually can't even hear because you're in such a rush to or from something important you've tried to engineer.”
— David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Engineer
“DESTINY is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your own mind of what you're about WILL COME TRUE. It's a kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it's a fragile feeling, and you put it out there, then someone will kill it. It's best to keep that all inside.”
— Bob Dylan, The Bob Dylan Scrapbook: 1956-1966
Tagged: Destiny, Feelings, Fate
“I knew it like destiny, and at the same time, I knew it as choice.”
— Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping
Tagged: Destiny, Choices, Decisions
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
— Lisa Mantchev, Eyes Like Stars
Tagged: Destiny, Stars, Fate
“We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.”
— Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Death
“You can never know about about your own destiny: are the people you meet there to play a part on your own destiny, or do you exist just to play a role in theirs?”
— Libba Bray, Going Bovine
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, People
“No matter what your history has been, your destiny is what you create today. What are you going to create?”
— Steve Maraboli, Life, The Truth, and Being Free
Tagged: Destiny, History, Create
“Sometimes you imagine that everything could have been different for you, that if only you had gone right one day when you chose to go left, you would be living a life you could never have anticipated. But at other times you think there was no other way forward--that you were always bound to end up exactly where you have.”
— Kevin Brockmeier, The View From the Seventh Layer(Vintage Contemporaries)
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Choices
“Destiny is a lie. Destiny is justification for atrocity. It is the means by which murderers armour themselves against reprimand. It is a word intended to stand in place of ethics, denying all moral context.”
— Steven Erikson, Midnight Tides- A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
Tagged: Destiny, Murder, Lies
“Destiny is a worrying concept. I don't want to be fated, I want to choose.”
— Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Choices
“I believe we make our own destinies, every last one of us.”
— Morgan Rhodes, Rebel Spring
Tagged: Destiny, Decisions, Choices
“Each meeting occurs at the precise moment for which it was meant. Usually, when it will have the greatest impact on our lives.”
— Nadia Scrieva, Fathoms of Forgiveness(Sacred Breath, Book 2)
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Timing
“It's a funny thing, how much time we spend planning our lives. We so convince ourselves of what we want to do, that sometimes we don't see what we're meant to do.”
— Susan Gregg Gilmore, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen: A Novel
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Planning
“Destiny's what you make of it. You have to face whatever life throws at you.”
— Darren Shan, Hell's Heroes
Tagged: Destiny, surviving, Fate
“All of us have a path to follow and the path begins on earth.”
— Richard Matheson, What Dreams May Come: A Novel
Tagged: Destiny, Paths, Meaning
“The truth is revealed when you are ready to receive it when you need it in order to move forward to take the next step in your journey. To move on toward your destiny.”
— Alyson Noël, Everlasting: A Novel(The Immortals)
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Truth
“'What would I do if you never came here?' But I was ALWAYS coming here. I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
Tagged: Destiny, Poems, God
“That's the thing about destiny: It can't be predicted, and it's usually pretty odd.”
— Jasper Fforde, The Last Dragonslayer: The Chronicles of Kazam, Book 1
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Predictions
“Life is not only about the choices you make. That some of them will be made for you.”
— Nafisa Haji, The Writing on My Forehead: A Novel
Tagged: Destiny, Choices, Fate
“Fate is just another word for people's choices coming to a head. Destiny, coincidence, whatever you name it. It inevitably lies in our hands.”
— Tiffanie DeBartolo, How to Kill a Rock Star
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Choices
“The mystery of human destiny is that we are fated, but that we have the freedom to fulfill or not fulfill our fate: realization of our fated destiny depends on us. While inhuman beings like the cockroach realize the entire cycle without going astray because they make no choices.”
— Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G.H.(New Directions Paperbook)
Tagged: Destiny, Fate, Choices
“Remember how far you’ve come, and you won’t have to rely on a destiny for your future. It will come on your own.”
— Shannon A. Thompson, Seconds Before Sunrise
Tagged: Destiny, Future, Fate
“Does our purpose on Earth directly link to the people whom we end up meeting? Are our relationships and experiences actually the required dots that connect and then lead us to our ultimate destinies?”
— Jennifer Elisabeth, Born Ready: Unleash Your Inner Dream Girl
Tagged: Destiny, purpose, Relationships