Books on tape presents character is destiny, inspiring stories every young person should know.And every adult should remember by john mccain with mark salter,read by arthur murray introduction.I don't believe in destiny.We are not born to become one thing or another left to follow helplessly.

A course that was charted for us by some unseen hand,a mysterious alignment of the stars that poses in a certain direction, bestowing happiness on some and misfortune on others.The only fate we cannot escape is our mortality,even a long life as a brief experience.Hard as that is to believe when we are young,god has given us that life shown us how to use it,but left it to us to dispose of as we choose.Our character will determine how well or how poorly we choose.It is your character and your character alone that will make your life happy or unhappy.

That is all that really passes for destiny and you choose it.No one else can give it to you or deny it to you.No rival can steal it from you,and no friend can give it to you.Others can encourage you to make the right choices or discourage you,but you choose your happiness is at stake in every difficult decision you must make about what kind of person you will be honest or deceitful, responsible or unreliable,brave or cowardly,kind or cruel.Your talents have little to do with it.Your looks don't matter at all. You don't need to be good at sports.

You don't need to be popular with other kids. You need not be smarter than others.Those things are nice and useful and pleasing,but they won't buy themselves.Make you happy.Looks change.

People for no good reason can sometimes treat us unfairly.And friends come and go as our lives take us to new schools,different jobs,and far away places.Our strength and speed and agility grow for a few years.And then for most of our lives,we get weaker, slower and clumsy year,however smart we are,there are always other people who know more than us.

The stories in this book, those that are well known and those that are not are the stories of remarkable people who chose, well,most of people of exceptionally good character all no doubt had flaws.Everyone does,but they all exemplify one or more essential attributes of good character.I would be proud to be among their number,but were I to use my own character as an example of how to build yours?I would like one of the most important qualities of good character, honesty,my own children, who have suffered, as they often remind me considerable embarrassment already from their fathers.

Public and unconvincing attempts at proving himself a role model for the young have taught me just enough humility to avoid that conceit rather than cause them any further discomfort.I have relied instead on the example of people who have no need to prove themselves worthy of admiration.They have earned much more than public acclaim.