“Life will undertake to separate us, and we must each set off in search of our own path, our own destiny or our own way of facing death.”

“We must each of us bear our own misfortunes.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

“We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes—one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximum freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way.”

Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist

“Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.”

Judy Blume Tiger Eyes

“Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny…. To work out our identity in God.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

“Have we not the right to our own views, and own interpretations, and own creeds, and own Truths equal to those that proceeded us? Must we forever wear the cast-off garments of past ages?”

Benjamin Fish Austin (1850–1933) Nineteenth-century Canadian educator/Methodist Minister/Spiritualist

“I think we make our own luck. Our parents give us life, but what we do with that life is our own responsibility.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

“We create our own destiny by the way we do things. We have to take advantage of opportunities and be responsible for our choices.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

“Our destinies are our own, if we have the courage to take control of them.”

David Clement-Davies book Fell

“Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America