The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have.
Anna QuindlenRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our lives are greatly influenced by chance events and decisions.
This quote reflects on the idea that our life paths are largely shaped by seemingly minor choices and chance occurrences. Anna Quindlen emphasizes that what might seem like insignificant whims can lead to significant life changes, highlighting the unpredictable nature of our existence and the importance of recognizing how much of our lives are built on happenstance rather than strict plans or designs.
Themes
HappenstanceChanceLife ChoicesDecisionsUnpredictability
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about taking risks in life, one could reference how small decisions can lead to great opportunities, using this quote.
More from Anna Quindlen
All quotes →The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.
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I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.
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With reference to the younger generation..."If the experience of their exhausted, insomniac, dispirited elders makes them decide they'd prefer not to go straight from the classroom to the cubicle to the coffin, it doesn't mean they're lazy. It means they're sane."
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Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them.
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I conveniently forgot to remember that people only have two hands, or, as another parent once said of having a third child, it's time for a zone defense instead of man-to-man.
Anna QuindlenRead
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