Determinism vs Free Will | which do you believe in?

I liked my first quote about cards, because, it sums up what I think about life. You have what you end up with in life, and that is it. Wether you are born male/female, rich/poor, British/American/Australian/Spanish/French/India/Chinese etc, that is what you have. But then it is up to you what you do with what you have, wether you are happy about it, and make do, wether you live, trapped by your limitations, or wether you search for more. But throughout all this, you are still limited by the hand you have been delt.

Sorry, to delve into more quotes, but its the best way I can think of to explain myself...

"If at first you don't succeed, you're running above average."
--M. H. Alderson

We can not give up hope in our lives. If we have free will, giving up hope means our fate will never be fufilled. If fate is pre-destined, we still can take no pleasure in a fate we played no part in bringing about.

"We create our fate every day we live."
--Henry Miller

Even if our lives are pre-destined, we still have been pre-destined to play our part in it, and at very least, we should do the best we can to get where we are going, and with a smile on our faces.

"I learn by going where I have to go."
--Theodore Roethke

Obsticals are placed in our path, but we should not turn back. We should find our way over, not around, them, and learn from our bad experiences, for an experience is not worth having if we can not learn from it.

[i]"Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not a sum of what we have been but what we yearn to be."
--Jose Ortega y Gassett[i]

I chose my fate, my fate does not chose me.... I decide to make my desisions, even if they will make me unhappy in the end... perhaps i know that from the start...