Ten Quotes on Destiny

While researching for my next post in my other blog, I was looking out for a quotation that would capture the essence of what I wanted to muse about the life path of incumbent U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

You see, Mr. Bernanke was just a child of six or seven when the Great Depression struck in the 1930s. His experience during that period apparently left a lasting influence on the young Bernanke who once asked his maternal grandmother why many children in the neighborhood went to school either barefoot or in tattered shoes.

It's an anecdote that leads me to the inevitable word: Destiny. Let me share with you these quotes that I stumbled upon:

"There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny." -Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

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Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny." -Tyron Edwards

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"Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all." -Alexander the Great

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"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." -Ray Bradbury

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"A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance." -Benjamin Disraeli

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"The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five." -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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"And the high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule, or to impose himself in any other way." -Albert Einstein

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"Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid." -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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"Even when you think you have your life all mapped out, things happen that shape your destiny in ways you might never have imagined." -Deepak Chopra

(The royalty-free photo shown above courtesy of www.sxc.hu)

Quotes From "Soul Moments"

In “Soul Moments”, Phil Cousineau presents a terrific collection of synchronicity stories which fed my longing for heartwarming stories of meaningful coincidences in May 2002, during a brief three-month interlude in my professional career. Here are the lessons I learned:

On “Synchronicity”:

“…synchronicity is less a phenomenon to be proved than a fascination to be lived.”

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“For me, synchronicity is an inexplicable but profoundly meaningful coincidence that stirs the soul and offers a guiding glimpse of one’s destiny.”

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“For all its usual brevity, an experience of synchronicity is marked by elegance, symmetry, vividness, suddenness, poetry, or a truth that speaks to the heart, often finally a sense of the unforgettable…”

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“…there are no accidents in the circle of synchronicity.”

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“…synchronicities arose during points of crisis in people’s lives, and moreover, contained insights, seeds of the future, and signs of destiny, if only people learned how to read them.”

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“…an experience of synchronicity is a soul moment, an electrifying experience, as sudden as a visitation by a god, a palpable inrush of grace and power, one of the defining moments in life, a sudden conviction that we might move beyond fate and realize a hint of our destiny.”

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“There is a palpable link between synchronicity and destiny.”

On “Moments”:

“I know I couldn’t make it through the rest of the day if every moment had momentous significance.”

On “Meaning of Life”:

“…the meaning of life is not only in the quest for one’s own well-being but lies in the service of something greater.”

On “Life’s Stories”:

“…there are only six kinds of stories that are repeated over and over…”


On “True Vocation”:

“…if one does the work proper to one’s true vocation, ‘the grace of great things’ will come naturally.”

- Phil Cousineau

Quotes From "Soul Mates, Karma & Reincarnation"...Part 1

This book by Jaime T. Lichauco, a local author who is considered a foremost authority on esoteric topics, is one of several in my collection dealing with soulmates, karma and reincarnation. As it is my habit to date my books as I acquire them, I can see that this copy has been in my personal library for 10 years now! Since I usually buy books to help me answer questions that preoccupied my mind at that point in time, this means that soul mates, karma and reincarnation were the topics that were "bothering" me around 1997. Now, what was I doing in 1997 and why was I intrigued about these things? Anyway, whatever the answer to that is, these are the quotations which caught my interest in this book.

On Soul Mates:

"One never consciously seeks out one's soul mate...The soul mate finds you. He or she merely appears in one's life when the right time and circumstances come."

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"When soul mates meet, there is from the very beginning instant recognition of each other stemming from the very core of their beings, and this recognition has an aura of certainty that defies logic. This is commonly called 'love at first sight'."

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"Soul mate relationships can never be one-sided, for the two meet because they are mutually attracted to each other in this incarnation from the highest levels of their consciousness. If they did not attract each other, they would never have met in this lifetime."

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"A soul mate encounter brings about a stirring of soul memory and one recognizes a soul mate intuitively from the very recesses of the soul."

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"When it's time for souls to meet, there's nothing on earth that can prevent them from meeting, no matter where each may be located on planet Earth."

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"A soul mate encounter is spiritually uplifting."

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"There can only be one soul mate for each person because only one individual can be a perfect partner at all levels of his or her being and only one individual (which is the other half) who can share exactly the same pattern of soul evolution and destiny."

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"Karmic partners are often mistaken for soul mates because some karmic encounters are very strong or powerful."

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"Soul mates may or may not be partners in life, legally speaking. And more often than not, they may not be married to each other. That is, perhaps, the reason why so many marriages flounder."

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"We must realize that we seldom meet a person by accident. Almost everyone we meet in this lifetime is an old acquaintance we met in a distant past."

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"A meaningful encounter between two individuals is always karmic in character. Deep frienships are of the same category. Parent and child, boss and subordinate, and sweetheart relationships are also karmic."

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"Those who have multiple meaningful partners (i.e. several wives or husbands) may have several karmic debts with various individuals."

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"A true soul mate encounter has no ifs or buts."


--Jaime T. Lichauco

One-liner Quotes From "The Alchemist"

"The Alchemist" was a book I could not put down, so I devoured it in one sitting. It is a very easy and engaging read that's full of wisdom and metaphors which can guide one's everyday life. More specifically, it covers many of the topics that have made me a bookworM: a quest, a dream, an adventure, and destiny. These are the highlighted quotes in my copy of this book.

On Life:

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

On Happiness:

"If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man."

On one's Destiny:

"God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that he left for you."

On one's Soul:

"Your eyes show the strength of your soul."

On Dreams:

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

On the World's Greatest Lie:

"...at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate."

On Blessings:

"...every blessing ignored becomes a curse."

--Paulo Coelho