Determine Your Destiny Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Determine Your Destiny. Here they are! All 100 of them:

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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.
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Roy T. Bennett
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Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
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Aristotle
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It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.
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Anthony Robbins
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There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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...remember one thing only: that it's you-nobody else-who determines your destiny and decides your fate. Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else.
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E.E. Cummings
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Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will
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Jack Welch
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The struggles we endure today will be the β€˜good old days’ we laugh about tomorrow.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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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.
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Heraclitus
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It's in those quiet little towns, at the edge of the world, that you will find the salt of the earth people who make you feel right at home.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny.
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Jean Nidetch
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if you have not made somebody's day happier, if you've not appreciated something good that has happened to you and if you have not felt thankful to be alive, then you have wasted that day of your life on earth!
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Preeti Shenoy (Life is What You Make It: A Story of Love, Hope and How Determination Can Overcome Even Destiny)
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Life's trials will test you, and shape you, but don’t let them change who you are.” ~ Aaron Lauritsen, β€˜100 Days Drive
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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True friends don't come with conditions.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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Without struggle, success has no value.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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From this point forward, you don’t even know how to quit in life.” ~ Aaron Lauritsen, β€˜100 Days Drive
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Aaron Lauritsen
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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.
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Caroline Myss
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Those who achieve the extraordinary are usually the most ordinary because they have nothing to prove to anybody. Be Humble.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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At some point, you just gotta forgive the past, your happiness hinges on it.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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In short: genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity.
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James Clear (Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones)
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Tell your daughters how you love your body. Tell them how they must love theirs. Tell them to be proud of every bit of themselvesβ€” from their tiger stripes to the soft flesh of their thighs, whether there is a little of them or a lot, whether freckles cover their face or not, whether their curves are plentiful or slim, whether their hair is thick, curly, straight, long or short. Tell them how they inherited their ancestors, souls in their smiles, that their eyes carry countries that breathed life into history, that the swing of their hips does not determine their destiny. Tell them never to listen when bodies are critiqued. Tell them every woman’s body is beautiful because every woman’s soul is unique.
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Nikita Gill (The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom)
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Choice not chance determines your destiny [my family motto...credited to Aristotle]
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Aristotle
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No amount of guilt can change the past, and no amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself, for the outcome of all affairs is determined by Allaah’s decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from it you cannot flee.
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Umar Ibn Al-Khattaab
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You opinions about me does not change who I am.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Explore, Experience, Then Push Beyond.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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Know that it’s your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.
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Anthony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny!)
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The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous and absolutely liberating.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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At the very moment when people underestimate you is when you can make a breakthrough.
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Germany Kent
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You start to live when you commit your life to cause higher than yourself. You must learn to depend on divine power for the fulfillment of a higher calling.
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Lailah GiftyAkita
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Red flags are moments of hesitation that determine our destination.
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Mandy Hale (The Single Woman–Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass: Embracing Singleness with Confidence)
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There's more to a person than flesh. Judge others by the sum of their soul and you'll see that beauty is a force of light that radiates from the inside out.
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Aaron Lauritsen
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If you didn't earn something, it's not worth flaunting.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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It doesn’t matter what other people think. The only opinion that really matters is yours. We are all the writers of our lives. We can make our stories comedies or tragedies. Tales of horror, or of inspiration. Your attitude and your fortitude and courage are what determine your destiny, Nick.… Life is hard and it sucks for all. Every person you meet is waging his or her own war against a callous universe that is plotting against them. And we are all battle-weary. But in the midst of our hell, there is always something we can hold on to, whether it’s a dream of the future or a memory of the past, or a warm hand that soothes us. We just have to take a moment during the fight to remember that we’re not alone, and that we’re not just fighting for ourselves. We’re fighting for the people we love.” -- Acheron
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Sherrilyn Kenyon (Inferno (Chronicles of Nick, #4))
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It’s the β€˜everyday’ experiences we encounter along the journey to who we wanna be that will define who we are when we get there.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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Choice, not chance, determines your destiny. It's up to you to decide what you are worth, how you matter, and how you make meaning in the world. No one else has your gifts--your set of talents, ideas, interests. You are an original. A masterpiece.
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Regina Brett
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Know what you want and reach out eagerly for it.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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It’s good to remember that success may be just beyond the next failure, and you’ll get there, not because you’re destined to, but because you’re determined to.
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Steve Goodier
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The most fulfilling adventures happen when you start your journey without knowing where you’re going, because only then are you free to experience the unexpected detours you’re meant to take.
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A.J. Darkholme (Rise of the Morningstar (The Morningstar Chronicles, #1))
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Choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
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Aristotle
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Your ability to shape your destiny is directly proportional to your belief that it is a matter of will and determination--however much or little that belief may be.
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James A. Owen (The Barbizon Diaries: A Meditation on Will, Purpose, and the Value Of Stories)
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You have to choose your path. You have to decide what you wish to do. You are the only person that can determine your destiny.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Positive thinking is powerful thinking. If you want happiness, fulfillment, success and inner peace, start thinking you have the power to achieve those things. Focus on the bright side of life and expect positive results.
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Germany Kent
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Destiny is not for comfort seekers. Destiny is for the daring and determined who are willing to endure some discomfort, delay gratification, and go where Destiny leads.
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T.D. Jakes (Destiny: Step into Your Purpose)
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Building bridges is the best defence against ignorance.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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No amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself, for the outcome of all affairs is determined by God's decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee.
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Umar ibn Al-Khattab
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The high road of grace will get you somewhere a whole lot faster then the freeway of spite.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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We love our partners for who they are, not for who they are not.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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Hang on! God will be thy strength in any act of your pursuit.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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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.
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Derek Donais (MetalMagic: Talisman)
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In the moment of decision, may you hear the voice of the Creator saying, β€˜This is right road, travel on it.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Don't let anyone tell your story. Pick up a pen and write your own.
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Majid Kazmi
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You life matters. You are here for a reason. Your job is to determine why.
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Michael Hyatt (Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want)
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Not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny. And how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness.
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Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose)
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And indeed if you think you're a genius at something what you achieve is very much according to your expectations; if you think you're no good, you're not going to get anywhere.
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Diana Wynne Jones
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SHOW GOOD WILL TO ALL Be fearless and pure; never waiver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve. Realize the truth of the scriptures; learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigor, patience, will purity; avoid malice and pride Then, Arjuna, you will achieve your divine destiny.
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Bhagavad Gita
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genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity. As physician Gabor Mate notes, β€œGenes can predispose, but they don’t predetermine.
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James Clear (Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones)
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Fate determines your caste. You must accept it and live according to the rules." You can't really believe that!" I do believe it. That man's misfortune is that he cannot accept his caste, his fate." I know that the Indians wear their caste as a mark upon their foreheads for all to see. I know that in England, we have our own unacknowledged caste system. A laborer will never hold a seat in Parliament. Neither will a woman. I don't think I've ever questioned such things until this moment. But what about will and desire? What if someone wants to change things." Kartik keeps his eyes on the room "You cannot change your caste. You cannot go against fate." That means there is no hope of a better life. It is a trap." That is how you see it," he says softly. What do you mean?" It can be a relief to follow the path that has been laid oud for you, to know your course and play your part in it." But how can you be sure that you are following the right course? What if there is no such thing as destiny, only choice?" Then I do not choose to live without destiny," he says with a slight smile.
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Libba Bray (Rebel Angels (Gemma Doyle, #2))
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The way you SEE your life SHAPES your life. How you define life determines your destiny. Your perspective will influence how you invest your time, spend your money, use your talents, and value your relationships.
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Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?)
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Travel is costly yes, but it pays dividends too.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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Infinite gratitude, infinite hope.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Those who dare take risks shall fulfill their passions.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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May my soul radiate light and love.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
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Regina Brett (God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours)
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Adversity quickens the mind, awakens the spirit and strength the soul.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Within you lies your strength.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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The world needs great inspires, who will encourage every living soul to reach their highest potential. You can be one.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Be a team player, not a bandwagon jumper.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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At the end of the day, the circumstances of your life-- what you look like,where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home--none of that is an excuse... where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No ones written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write you own destiny.You make your own future.
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Barack Obama
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Don’t ever let your circumstances determine your outcome. You are bigger and better than that. You can always control your own destiny. Use what you’ve got, find what you don’t, and make your dreams come true.
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Gary Vaynerchuk (#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness)
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Destiny, quite often, is a determined parent. Mozart was hardly some naive prodigy who sat down at the keyboard and, with God whispering in his ears, let music flow from his fingertips. It's a nice image for selling tickets to movies, but whether or not God has kissed your brow, you still have to work. Without learning and preparation, you won't know how to harness the power of that kiss.
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Twyla Tharp (The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life)
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There is no limit to life. The only limit is the limit you put into life.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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In the midst of the turbulence, we hang onto hope.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Finally, your self worth will, to a large extent, determine your eventual net worth. In other words, you will earn and accumulate what you believe you're worthy of having. Unless you're worth it, you won't be worth the effort that it takes to get it or do it. Denis Waitley
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Janet Bray Attwood (The Passion Test: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Destiny)
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The hardest lessons come from the solutions people, who are already a little disappointed that I am not saving myself. There is always a nutritional supplement, Bible verse or mental process I have not adequately tried. β€œKeep smiling! Your attitude determines your destiny!” said a stranger named Jane in an email, having heard my news somewhere, and I was immediately worn out by the tyranny of prescriptive joy.
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Kate Bowler (Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)
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Your Greatest Power - The things that you keep silently telling yourself are your most important conversations. Whatever you habitually dwell on in your mind, you will become, express, or experience. Your subconscious mind will be your best friend or your worst enemy. Everything depends on the way you train it and the use you make of it. ... your freedom to think, choose, reason, and decide for yourself. It shapes your destiny and determines the attraction and repulsion in your life. Guard its portals well. It is your hope of heaven.
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Elinor MacDonald
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Your thoughts determine your actions. Your actions create your habits. Your habits form your character. Your character determines your destiny.
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Brad Willis (Warrior Pose: How Yoga (Literally) Saved My Life)
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There is no need for comparison. Be happy with yourself and find satisfaction in your work.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Education is one of the greatest gift for mankind. Each one of us must seek this enlightenment.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Let you limitation fuel your determination to work on your strengths.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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The obstacles were intended to be a distraction from the goal. You must keep a persistence focus to realise the goal.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Your life and destiny are determined to a large extent by your participation in the outcome.
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Paul Stanley (Face the Music: A Life Exposed)
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You have to conquer every mountain to fulfill the dream.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Nothing is determined by fate. We create our own fate.
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Jessica Sankiewicz (If Only We)
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There is no such thing as loving a child too much.
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Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
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Hope is the believe that the promised will be fulfilled.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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While genes are pivotal in establishing some aspects of emotionality, experience plays a central role in turning genes on and off. DNA is not the heart’s destiny; the genetic lottery may determine the cards in your deck, but experience deals the hand you can play. Scientists have proven, for example, that good mothering can override a disadvantageous temperament.
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Thomas Lewis (A General Theory of Love)
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In scattering the seed, scattering your 'charity,' your kind deeds, you are giving away, in one form or antoher, part of your personality, and taking into yourself part of another; you are in mutual communion with one another, a little more attention and you will be rewarded with the knowledge of the most unexpected discoveries. You will come at last to look upon your work as a science; it will lay hold of all your life, and may fill up your whole life. On the other hand, all your thoughts, all the seeds scattered by you, perhaps forgotten by you, will grow up and take form. He who has received them from you will hand them on to another. And how can you tell what part you may have in the future determination of the destinies of humanity?
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Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot)
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If you refuse to accept what is, and choose to see what could be, then you set a course for yourself that makes others take notice of you, respect you, revere you. It is then that they become objects of your destiny instead of you playing a support role in theirs.
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A.J. Darkholme (Rise of the Morningstar (The Morningstar Chronicles, #1))
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Celebrate your day of birthday as special day.Make a specific birthday wishes and write it down.You will be amazed about the power of pen and inner strength to accomplish the wishes. This will be a special gift for yourself on each birthday.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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As hard as it may seem, move forward one step at a time, day by day, knowing that there will be valuable lessons learned and strength gained in each trial. There is a certain peace to be found in knowing that there is a master plan for your life and that your value, purpose, and destiny are not determined by what happens to you but by how you respond.
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Nick Vujicic (Unstoppable)
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Not accomplishing your Life Plan is a tragic act of free will. It is akin to charting an elaborate vacation itinerary before arriving at your holiday destination, with all kinds of plans for outdoor adventures and intentions to go sightseeing and shopping, but then ending up spending the whole trip in your hotel room ordering from room service and watching television. In a similar fashion the unconscious soul spends a lifetime in the semi-conscious state of Divine Disconnection and then returns home mostly β€˜empty-handed’.
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Anthon St. Maarten (Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny)
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Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant. It can change your relationships, your working environment, your level of physical fitness, your income, and your emotional states. It can determine whether you’re happy or sad, whether you’re frustrated or excited, enslaved by circumstances, or expressing your freedom. It’s the source of change within an individual, a family, a community, a society, our world.
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Anthony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny!)
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Fate has always been the realm of the gods, though even the gods are subject to it. In ancient Greek mythology, the Three Sisters of Fate spin out a person's destiny within three nights of their birth. Imagine your newborn child in his nursery. It's dark and soft and warm, somewhere between two and four a.m., one of those hours that belong exclusively to the newly born or the dying. The first sister - Clotho - appears next to you. She's a maiden, young and smooth. In her hands she holds a spindle, and on it she spins the thrads of your child's life. Next to her is Lachesis, older and more matronly than her sister. In her hands, she holds the rod used to mesure the thread of life. The length and destiny of your child's life is in her hands. Finally we have Atropos - old, haggardly. Inevitable. In her hands she holds the terrible shears she'll use to cut the thread of your child's life. She determines the time and manner of his or her death. Imagine the awesome and awful sight of these three sisters pressed together, presiding over his crib, dermining his future. In modern times, the sisters have largely disappeared from the collective consiousness, but the idea of Fate hasn't. Why do we still believe? Does itmake tragedy more bearable to believe that we ourselves had no hand in it, that we couldn't have prevented it? It was always ever thus. Things happen for a reason, says Natasha's mother. What she means is Fate has a Reason and, though you may not know it, there's a certain comfort in knowing that there's a Plan.
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Nicola Yoon (The Sun Is Also a Star)
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Is man's destiny determined by the vicissitudes of environment or free will? I argue that it is free will, because what we think, what we dwell upon in our heads, whether it be fears or dreams, has a direct effect upon the physical world. The more you think about your downfall, your ruin, the greater the likelihood that it will occur. And conversely, the more one thinks of victory, the more likely one will achieve it.
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Marisha Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity Physics)
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PROLOGUE Have you ever had the feeling that someone was playing with your destiny? If so, this book is for you! Destiny is certainly something people like to talk about. Wherever we go, we hear it mentioned in conversations or proverbs that seek to lay bare its mysteries. If we analyse people’s attitude towards destiny a little, we find straight away that at one extreme are those who believe that everything in life is planned by a higher power and that therefore things always happen for a reason, even though our limited human understanding cannot comprehend why. In this perspective, everything is preordained, regardless of what we do or don’t do. At the other extreme we find the I can do it! believers. These focus on themselves: anything is possible if done with conviction, as part of the plan that they have drawn up themselves as the architects of their own Destiny. We can safely say that everything happens for a reason. Whether it’s because of decisions we take or simply because circumstances determine it, there is always more causation than coincidence in life. But sometimes such strange things happen! The most insignificant occurrence or decision can give way to the most unexpected futures. Indeed, such twists of fate may well be the reason why you are reading my book now. Do you have any idea of the number of events, circumstances and decisions that had to conspire for me to write this and for you to be reading it now? There are so many coincidences that had to come together that it might almost seem a whim of destiny that today we are connected by these words. One infinitesimal change in that bunch of circumstances and everything would have been quite different… All these fascinating issues are to be found in Equinox. I enjoy fantasy literature very much because of all the reality it involves. As a reader you’re relaxed, your defences down, trying to enjoy an loosely-structured adventure. This is the ideal space for you to allow yourself to be carried away to an imaginary world that, paradoxically, will leave you reflecting on real life questions that have little to do with fiction, although we may not understand them completely.
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Gonzalo Guma (Equinoccio. Susurros del destino)
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Our way of life decrees that everyone is born with a pre-determined destiny. With good karma, one can try to make the most of one’s circumstances. But that’s all. There is a lot that is beyond the power of mere humans, ; the future unfolds the way it is meant to. Everyone acts the way they are meant to and lives as they are meant to, ; not a moment more, not a moment less. Each person that you meet has a role to play and nothing can alter that. The relationship they share with you, the duration of their presence in your life, all of it is ordained
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Sandhya Jane
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AI will not solve poverty, because the conditions that lead to societies that pursue profit over people are not technical. AI will not solve discrimination, because the cultural patterns that say one group of people is better than another because of their gender, their skin color, the way they speak, their height, or their wealth are not technical. AI will not solve climate change, because the political and economic choices that exploit the earth’s resources are not technical matters. As tempting as it may be, we cannot use AI to sidestep the hard work of organizing society so that where you are born, the resources of your community, and the labels placed upon you are not the primary determinants of your destiny. We cannot use AI to sidestep conversations about patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, or who holds power and who doesn’t.
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Joy Buolamwini (Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines)
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They had been talking about astrology, a forbidden science that was not pursued in the cloister. Narcissus had said that astrology was an attempt to arrange and order the many different types of human beings according to their natures and destinies. At this point Goldmund had objected: "You're forever talking of differences - I've finally recognised a pet theory of yours. When you speak of the great difference that is supposed to exist between you and me, for instance, it seems to me that this difference is nothing but your strange determination to establish differences." Narcissus: "Yes. You've hit the nail on the head. That's it: to you, differences are quite unimportant; to me, they are what matters most. I am a scholar by nature; science is my vocation. And science is, to quote your words, nothing but the 'determination to establish differences.' Its essence couldn't be defined more accurately. For us, the men of science, nothing is as important as the establishment of differences; science is the art of differentiation. Discovering in every man that which distinguishes him from others is to know him.
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Hermann Hesse (Narcissus and Goldmund)
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[1] The first premise is that you should know that in the world as a whole and in its parts, both upper and earthly, there is nothing which forms an exception to the facts that God is the cause of its being and origination and that God has knowledge of it, controls it, and wills its existence; it is all subject to His control, determination, knowledge, and will. This is a general and superficial account, although in these assertions we intend to describe it truly, not as the theologians understand it; and it is possible to produce proofs and demonstrations of that. Thus, if it were not that this world is composed of elements which give rise to good and evil things in it and produce both righteousness and wickedness in its inhabitants , there would have been no completion of an order for the world. For if the world had contained nothing but pure righteousness, it would not have been this world, but another one, and it would necessarily have had a composition different from the present composition; and likewise if it had contained nothing but sheer wickedness, it would not have been this world but another one. But whatever is composed in the present fashion and order contains both righteousness and wickedness. [2] The second premise is that according to the ancients Rewards is the occurrence of pleasure in the soul corresponding to the extent of its perfection, while Punishment is the occurrence of pain in the soul corresponding to the extent of its deficiency. So the soul's abiding in deficiency is it's 'alienation from God the exalted', and this is the 'curse' 'the penalty', [God's] 'wrath' and 'anger', and pain comes to it from that deficiency; while its perfection is what is meant by [God's] 'satisfaction', with it, its 'closeness' and 'nearness' and 'attachment'. This, then, and nothing else is the meaning of 'Reward' and 'Punishment' according to them. [3] The third premise is that the resurrection is just the return of human souls to their own world: this is why God the Exalted has said, 'O tranquil soul, return to your Lord, satisfied and satisfactory.' These are summary statements that need to be supported by their proper demonstrations.
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Avicenna (ibn sina's essay on the secret of destiny)
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PROLOGUE Equinox: Whispers of Destiny Have you ever had the feeling that someone was playing with your destiny? If so, this book is for you. Destiny is certainly a topic people like to talk about. Wherever we go, we hear it mentioned in conversations or proverbs that seek to lay bare its mysteries. If we analyze people’s attitude towards destiny a little, we find straight away that at one extreme there are those who believe that everything in life is planned by a higher power and that therefore things always happen for a reason, even though our limited human understanding cannot comprehend why. In that perspective, everything is preordained, regardless of what we do or don’t do. At the other extreme we find the I can do it! Believers. These focus on themselves: anything is possible if done with conviction, as part of the plan that they have drawn up themselves as the architects of their own destiny. We can safely say that everything happens for a reason. Whether it’s because of decisions we take or simply because circumstances determine it, there is always more causation than coincidence in life. But sometimes such strange things happen. The most insignificant occurrence or decision can give way to the most unexpected futures. Indeed, such twists of fate may well be the reason why you are reading my book now. Do you have any idea of the number of events, circumstances and decisions that had to conspire for me to write this and for you to be reading it now? There are so many coincidences that had to come together that it might almost seem a whim of destiny that today we are connected by these words. One infinitesimal change in that set of circumstances and everything would have been quite different… All these fascinating ideas are to be found in Equinox. I am drawn to fantasy literature because of all the coincidences to reality. As a reader you’re relaxed, your defenses down, trusting the writer to take you on an adventure. This is the ideal space for you to allow yourself to be carried away to an imaginary world that, paradoxically, will leave you reflecting on life questions that have little to do with fiction, but I ask you that perhaps maybe they do. Β  Gonzalo Guma
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Gonzalo Guma (Equinoccio. Susurros del destino)
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Tell me, Mar,” she would say (and here it must be explained, that when she called him by the first syllable of his first name, she was in a dreamy, amorous, acquiescent mood, domestic, languid a little, as if spiced logs were burning, and it was evening, yet not time to dress, and a thought wet perhaps outside, enough to make the leaves glisten, but a nightingale might be singing even so among the azaleas, two or three dogs barking at distant farms, a cock crowingβ€”all of which the reader should imagine in her voice)β€”β€œTell me, Mar,” she would say, β€œabout Cape Horn.” Then Shelmerdine would make a little model on the ground of the Cape with twigs and dead leaves and an empty snail shell or two. β€œHere’s the north,” he would say. β€œThere’s the south. The wind’s coming from hereabouts. Now the Brig is sailing due west; we’ve just lowered the top-boom mizzen; and so you seeβ€”here, where this bit of grass is, she enters the current which you’ll find markedβ€”where’s my map and compasses, Bo’sun?β€”Ah! thanks, that’ll do, where the snail shell is. The current catches her on the starboard side, so we must rig the jib boom or we shall be carried to the larboard, which is where that beech leaf is,β€”for you must understand my dear—” and so he would go on, and she would listen to every word; interpreting them rightly, so as to see, that is to say, without his having to tell her, the phosphorescence on the waves, the icicles clanking in the shrouds; how he went to the top of the mast in a gale; there reflected on the destiny of man; came down again; had a whisky and soda; went on shore; was trapped by a black woman; repented; reasoned it out; read Pascal; determined to write philosophy; bought a monkey; debated the true end of life; decided in favour of Cape Horn, and so on. All this and a thousand other things she understood him to say and so when she replied, Yes, negresses are seductive, aren’t they? he having told her that the supply of biscuits now gave out, he was surprised and delighted to find how well she had taken his meaning. β€œAre you positive you aren’t a man?” he would ask anxiously, and she would echo, β€œCan it be possible you’re not a woman?” and then they must put it to the proof without more ado.
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Virginia Woolf (Orlando: A Biography)