Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
- William Jennings Bryan
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Assorted rants, screeds, and intemperate ruminations about all things cultural, political and philosophical.
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The Crusty Polemicist
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2008
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April
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- Happy Birthday, Alice B. Toklas
- "Prince of War" - a review
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- Happy Birthday, Immanuel Kant
- my Katrina play accepted for performance at NCCU
- Jessica Lynch: Simulacrum
- Quote of the Week
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- On this date in 1633
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- "Piety and Politics" -- a review
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6 comments:
This quote should come to anyone's senses. If the people during the time period of the time that God told them to move from their land to a new one is Manifest Destiny, it was their choice to obey. They did not wait for a second chance or noticed, but they wanted to achieve the goal of obeying to be successful.
Exactly, exactly. I'm a crusty old Existentialist, so I believe it's all about choice. I have a bumper sticker:
CONTROL YOUR DESTINY - OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL.
Of course, quotes like that one always seem more profoundly true when spoken by men whose destinies we admire or at least believe were chosen. It makes you wonder, or at least it makes me wonder, what facets of his destiny he really believed he controlled, and what he only wished that he did.
I found your blog on the Writing/Blogging Water Cooler Forum, by the way.
I know what you mean, Gwen.
I think you both might be on to something there. You have to wonder if there wasn't a bit of, I don't want to say "bravado" in that quote, but a bit of "whistling past the graveyard," maybe? Perhaps he had the sense that a lot of his destiny was being externally imposed, and that a lot of his life was something that happening to him rather than something where he was in control of events? Oh nuts, now I have to add a bio of Bryant to my bottomless list of "books to read during my copious free time"! :-)
We learn something new all the time even through blogs. You have to make the right choices that will lead you in the right direction or the wrong direction depending if the choice is right.
If something is or was happening to him, then he could have mere control of the events. There is something within us called self-conscience
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