Quotes About Circumstance

I suppose that's one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.

The first thing a great person does is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

If you're in your life, chance. Viewed from the outside, like a book you're reading, it's fate all the way.

We cannot choose our families or our class sums. But we can choose our own futures.

For the illuminated believer, however, the unifying and satisfying element in every circumstance is always the glory of God, not some sentimental, rose-colored view of the situation that makes him feel better about it.

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.

In reality, while we aim for excellence, we're always living on somebody's dunghill.

Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.

Thus we determined 'tis not solely the condition, but whether or not one has a choice that determines its oppression.

The great open secret of gratitude is that it is not dependent on external circumstance. It's like a setting or channel that we can switch to at any moment, no matter what's going on around us. It helps us connect to our basic right to be here, like the breath does.

There was no reason for what happened to you, Eddie. You could have died; you just didn't. It was dumb luck. Nobody chose you for anything. Which means, truly, that you can do anything.

Left to our own devices, we will notice some of the bad luck but overlook most of the dumb luck.

The way our lives turn out is the result of two things: the influence of skill and the influence of luck.

Le couple, assez fortuné, logeait dans un vieil hôtel chic, P. et moi dans une petite pension. Nous faisions peu l'amour, et rapidement, ne profitant pas de l'avantage que procurait mon état – le mal était fait – pas plus sans doute que le chômeur ne profite du temps et de la liberté que lui accorde l'absence de travail, ou le malade perdu de la permission de manger et boire de tout.

Certain people get an opportunity because they happen to be in the right place at the right time. It has no bearing on their talent. I don't think we should look at it and feel bitter about it. That's the way the cookie crumbles in all professions.

Children, presenting at our border, who are fleeing violence, who are fleeing prosecution, who are fleeing terrible situations is not a crisis. We feel that it is our responsibility to humanely approach this circumstance, and make sure they are treated and put in conditions that are safe.

Intelligence is a mere instrument of circumstances.

We are all of us the slaves of external circumstance: even at a table in some backstreet café, a sunny day can open up before us visions of wide fields; a shadow over the countryside can cause us to shrink inside ourselves, seeking uneasy shelter in the doorless house that is our self; and, even in the midst of daytime things, the arrival of darkness can open out, like a slowly spreading fan, a deep awareness of our need for rest.

Aunque no podamos elegir lo que nos pasa, podemos en cambio elegir lo que hacer frente a lo que nos pasa.

I think Latin American cultures are really rich and fascinating. I like the pomp and circumstance of some of their rituals and ceremonies.

Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate.

I believe that fate is choices - it's not chance.

Fate is for losers.