quotations about fate
Fate in the life of a people, as in the life of an individual, signifies an existence of compulsion. A strange necessity binds the particulars into one whole. The individual, against his will, is subjected and subjugated to the national, fate-laden, reality.
JOSEPH DOV SOLOVEITCHIK
Fate and Destiny
The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Natural History of Intellect
I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.
RONALD REAGAN
First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981
Fate is like a coconut--you never know when it's gonna fall. Can be good, can be bad. If it falls on your head, tough luck. If it falls at your feet, you've got something sweet to eat, something sweet to drink.
MARILENE PHIPPS-KETTLEWELL
The Company of Heaven
Perhaps fate isn't blind after all. Perhaps it's capable of fantasy, even compassion.
ELIE WIESEL
The Time of the Uprooted
Every one is more or less master of his own fate.
AESOP
"The Traveller and Fortune" Aesop's Fables
Fate is just the steps we take to follow destiny.
JUSTIN ROBERT HARNISH
King
Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
ALEXANDER POPE
An Essay on Man
Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupations of men engaged in rash undertakings.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
Blood Meridian
Submit, then, to fate, always assured that whatever is, is best.
EDU HASSAN
New York Mirror
Fate is like being dealt a hand of cards with which we must play the game of life.
JOHN A. SANFORD
What Men Are Like
Fate is like our guardian angel who watches over us when we tend to stray off of our Divine Path and Purpose. It warns us and gives us a friendly and warm nudge of love to steer us back on track and in the right direction.
MARY BOWERS
Before the Last Teardrop Falls
When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious.
FRANK HERBERT
Chapterhouse: Dune
How maliciously does fate always lurk in our path!
HEINRICH FRIEDRICH LUDWIG RELLSTAB
The Polish Lancer
If anyone does not help himself, fate never can help him.
HUANZHANG CHEN
The Economic Principles of Confucius
Fate, or "inevitability", has to do with events in history that are beyond the control of any circle of group of men having three characteristics: (1) compact enough to be identifiable, (2) powerful enough to decide with consequence, and (3) in a position to foresee these consequences and so to be held accountable for them. Events, according to this conception, are the summary and unintended results of innumerable decisions of innumerable men. Each of their decisions is minute in consequence and subject to concellation or reinforcement by other such decisions. There is no link between any one man's intention and the summary result of the innumerable decisions. Events are beyond human decisions: History is made behind men's backs.
CHARLES WRIGHT MILLS
The Sociological Imagination
Fate's always tricky. She likes to wait till she gets you by the back of the neck, so you can't do a thing, and then passes you all that's coming to you.
RIDGWELL COLLUM
The Law-Breakers
The Book of Fate isn't already written. It's written every day.
BRAD MELTZER
The Book of Fate
Great powers may be shaping the general turn of events, but human personalities still determine their own fate.
DAN SIMMONS
The Fall of Hyperion
Fate is irrevocable, and invincible, and an unchangeable decree; a necessity of all things and actions, according to eternal appointment.
SENECA
Epistles