Destiny is a good thing to accept when it’s going your way. When it isn’t, don’t call it destiny call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.

The remark satirizes how people invoke “destiny” as a flattering explanation for favorable outcomes while rejecting it when events turn harmful. Heller’s point is that “destiny” can function as a rhetorical cover for privilege, accident, or power: it dignifies success as inevitable and depersonalizes responsibility. When misfortune arrives, however, the same speaker suddenly prefers concrete moral or causal language—“injustice,” “treachery,” or “bad luck”—because those terms acknowledge agency, blame, or randomness. The quote thus challenges fatalism and exposes the self-serving asymmetry in how humans narrate their lives, urging clearer thinking about causation and accountability.