Sometimes I remind myself that I almost skipped the party, that I almost went to a different college, that the whim of a minute could have changed everything and everyone. Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance.

—Anna Quindlen in Every Last One

wonder fate whim happenstance

About Anna Quindlen

Portrait of Anna Quindlen

Anna Marie Quindlen (born July 8, 1952) is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist.

More quotations from Anna Quindlen

I show up. I listen. I try to laugh.

—Anna Quindlen

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.

—Anna Quindlen

When you leave college, there are thousands of people out there with the same degree you have; when you get a job, there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life.

—Anna Quindlen

Voices that loud are always meant to bully. Do not be bullied. Acts of bravery don't always take place on battlefields. They can take place in your heart, when you have the courage to honor your character, your intellect, your inclinations, and, yes your soul by listening to its clean, clear voice of direction instead of following the muddied messages of a timid world.

—Anna Quindlen

All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.

—Anna Quindlen

More quotations tagged with “fate”

Fate has a way of getting what she wants, no matter how we try to avoid it.

—Kresley Cole in Pleasure of a Dark Prince

Life can be unfair and unkind, but sometimes we just have to let go and let fate take over.

—Lisa De Jong in Plastic Hearts

life kindness fate

Just because things hadn’t gone the way I had planned didn’t necessarily mean they had gone wrong.

—Ann Patchett in What Now?

Destiny has two ways of crushing us—by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

—Henri Frederic Amiel

hope disappointment desire fate

You can’t keep yourself from falling in love, but you can steer yourself away from the wrong people.

—Jodi Picoult in Songs of the Humpback Whale

love people fate

History

15 Mar 2014 Added