Fate

"The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome."

"I am the prince who decides the destiny of rolling rivers. I keep on the straight and narrow path the righteous who follow Enlil's counsel. [...] If I fix a fate, who shall alter it? If I but say the word, who shall change it?"

"For whatever reasons, Ray, call it . . . fate, call it luck, call it karma. I believe everything happens for a reason. I believe that we were destined to get thrown out of this dump."

"Fate has a way of circling back on a man, and taking him by surprise. A man sees things differently at different times in his life. This town didn't seem the same now that he was older."

"The heart is its own Fate."

"There's nothing you can know that isn't known Nothing you can see that isn't shown There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be It's easy"

"Let those deplore their doom, Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn: But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb, Can smile at Fate, and wonder how they mourn."

"There are two futures, the future of desire and the future of fate, and man's reason has never learnt to separate them. Desire, the strongest thing in the world, is itself all future, and it is not for nothing that in all the religions the motive is always forwards to an endless futurity of bliss or annihilation. Now that religion gives place to science the paradisical future of the soul fades before the Utopian future of the species, and still the future rules. But always there is, on the other side, destiny, that which inevitably will happen, a future here concerned not as the other was with man and his desires, but blindly and inexorably with the whole universe of space and time. The Buddhist seeks to escape from the Wheel of Life and Death, the Christian passes through them in the faith of another world to come, the modern reformer, as unrealistic but less imaginative, demands his chosen future in this world of men. Can we in any better way reconcile desire and fate?"

"There is no fate but what we make."

"Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat."

"Many things happen between the cup and the lip."

"Success, the mark no mortal wit, Or surest hand, can always hit: For whatsoe'er we perpetrate, We do but row, we're steer'd by Fate, Which in success oft disinherits, For spurious causes, noblest merits."

"Don't let them tell us stories. Don't let them say of the man sentenced to death "He is going to pay his debt to society," but: "They are going to cut off his head." It looks like nothing. But it does make a little difference. And then there are people who prefer to look their fate in the eye."

"Fate is created, not ordained."

"Fate was turning a page in her Book of Delusions."

"Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what least we dread; Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow."

"Le sort fait les parents, la choix fait les amis."

"He has gone to the demnition bow-wows."

"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that May be only?"

"Fate has carried me 'Mid the thick arrows: I will keep my stand— Not shrink and let the shaft pass by my breast To pierce another."

"People are the pawns of fate."

"Marty, the future isn't written. It can be changed. You know that. Anyone can make their future whatever they want it to be."

"How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is."

"Adam: Nature mandates that mankind will eventually succumb to its poison. However, humans created their own poison, called medicine. It's delusional to believe you can poison Nature to avoid your fate."

"We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. ...Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out."

"Naomi: Each person is born with their fate written into their own genetic code... it's unchangeable, immutable... But that's not all there is to life. I finally realized that. I told you before. The reason that I was interested in genes and DNA. Because I wanted to know who I was... where I came from. I thought that if I analyzed my DNA I could find out who I was, who my parents were. And I thought that if I knew that, then I'd know what path I should take in life. But I was wrong. I didn't find anything. I didn't learn anything. Just like with the Genome Soldiers... you can input all the genetic information, but that doesn't make them into the strongest soldiers. The most we can say about DNA is that it governs a person's potential strengths... potential destiny. You mustn't allow yourself to be chained to fate... to be ruled by your genes. Humans can choose the type of life they want to live."

"There is no such thing as a historical fatality; there is only a historical nemesis which punishes those who have hesitated to act when action was still possible."

"'Tis strange how the heart can create Or colour from itself its fate; We make ourselves our own distress, We are ourselves our happiness."

"All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme."

"Everything is preordained. Even my responses."

"We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us."

"So long as it fated, fate didn’t care what it fated."

"Fool, don't you know you cannot change your fate."

"Fate is Never Final."

"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."

"Eat, speak, and move, under the influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead the measure such are to be followed."

"My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Numean lion's nerve."

"Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own."

"O God! that one might read the book of fate, And see the revolutions of the times Make mountains level, and the continent Weary of solid firmness, melt itself Into the sea!"

"What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide."

"If thou read this, O Cæsar, thou mayst live; If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive."

"Fates, we will know your pleasures: That we shall die we know; 'tis but the time And drawing days out, that men stand upon."

"What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid within an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?"

"But yet I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live."

"But, O vain boast! Who can control his fate?"

"You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of Fate; the elements Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish One dowle that's in my plume."

"Fate, show thy force; ourselves we do not owe; What is decreed must be, and be this so."

"As the old hermit of Prague … said,… "That that is, is.""

"Let me tell you about my fate: it is an insult. Let me explain it to you: it is a disgrace. Were I to tell my neighbour about my fate, he would heap insults upon me. I looked into the water. My destiny was drifting past. I was born on an ill-fated day."

"Fate is a dog, well able to bite."

"Fate is a raging storm blowing over the Land."

"A pig which was about to be slaughtered by the pig-butcher squealed. (The butcher said:) "Your ancestors and forebears walked this road, and now you too are walking it, so why are you squealing?""

"Fate is a wet bank; it can make one slip."

"Human effort can be used for self-betterment and that there is no such thing as an external fate imposed by the gods."

"Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis."

"Vivite felices, quibus est fortuna peracta Jam sua: nos alia ex aliis in fata vocamur."

"The Oracle: You're going to have to make a choice. In the one hand you'll have Morpheus' life and in the other hand you'll have your own. One of you is going to die. Which one will be up to you. I'm sorry, kiddo, I really am. You have a good soul, and I hate giving good people bad news. Oh, don't worry about it. As soon as you step outside that door, you'll start feeling better. You'll remember you don't believe in any of this fate crap. You're in control of your own life, remember? Here, take a cookie. I promise, by the time you're done eating it, you'll feel right as rain."

"Wyrd bið ful aræd."

"GaeS a wyrd swa hio scel."

"The bow is bent, the arrow flies, The wingéd shaft of fate."

"Yet who shall shut out Fate?"

"Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why, then, should we desire to be deceived?"

"Here's a sigh to those who love me, And a smile to those who hate; And whatever sky's above me, Here's a heart for every fate."

"To bear is to conquer our fate."

"Le vin est versé, il faut le boire."

"Tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant."

"All human things are subject to decay, And when fate summons, monarchs must obey."

"'Tis Fate that flings the dice, And as she flings Of kings makes peasants, And of peasants kings."

"Stern fate and time Will have their victims; and the best die first, Leaving the bad still strong, though past their prime, To curse the hopeless world they ever curs'd, Vaunting vile deeds, and vainest of the worst."

"On est, quand on veut, maître de son sort."

"One common fate we both must prove; You die with envy, I with love."

"Du musst (herrschen und gewinnen, Oder dienen und verlieren, Leiden oder triumphiren), Amboss oder Hammer sein."

"Der Mensch erfährt, er sei auch wer er mag, Ein letztes Glück und einen letzten Tag."

"Each curs'd his fate that thus their project cross'd; How hard their lot who neither won nor lost."

"Yet, ah! why should they know their fate, Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies? Thought would destroy their paradise."

"Though men determine, the gods doo dispose: and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip."

"Why doth IT so and so, and ever so, This viewless, voiceless Turner of the Wheel?"

"'Tis writ on Paradise's gate, "Woe to the dupe that yields to Fate!""

"ἦθος ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων"

"Toil is the lot of all, and bitter woe The fate of many."

"Jove lifts the golden balances that show The fates of mortal men, and things below."

"And not a man appears to tell their fate."

"With equal pace, impartial Fate Knocks at the palace, as the cottage gate."

"Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens Pinus, et celsæ graviore casu Decidunt terres feriuntque summos Fulgura montes."

"East, to the dawn, or west or south or north! Loose rein upon the neck of—and forth!"

"I do not know beneath what sky Nor on what seas shall be thy fate; I only know it shall be high, I only know it shall be great."

"Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?"

"Even if there were exceedingly few things in a finite space in an infinite time, they would not have to repeat in the same configurations. Suppose there were three wheels of equal size, rotating on the same axis, one point marked on the circumference of each wheel, and these three points lined up in one straight line. If the second wheel rotated twice as fast as the first, and if the speed of the third wheel was 1/π of the speed of the first, the initial line-up would never recur."

"Blue! Gentle cousin of the forest-green, Married to green in all the sweetest flowers— Forget-me-not,—the blue bell,—and, that queen Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great, When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!"

"The karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all. The fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who go out intentionally to kill God's creatures, and call it "sport"."

"Just to save himself a few minutes' trouble, a man does not pay his workmen on the proper day, thinking nothing of the difficulties he brings upon them. So much suffering is caused just by carelessness — by forgetting to think how an action will affect others. But karma never forgets, and it takes no account of the fact that men forget."

"Fate holds the strings, and Men like children move But as they're led: Success is from above."

"Some things are fixed, some things are in flux. Pompeii is fixed."

"No one is so accursed by fate, No one so utterly desolate, But some heart, though unknown, Responds unto his own."

"A millstone and the human heart are driven ever round, If they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be ground."

"Kabira wept when he beheld the millstone roll, Of that which passes 'twixt the stones, nought goes forth whole."

"In se magna ruunt: lætis hunc numina rebus Crescendi posuere modum."

"Sed quo fata trahunt, virtus secura sequetur."

"Nulla vis humana vel virtus meruisse unquam potuit, ut, quod præscripsit fatalis ordo, non fiat."

"It lies not in our power to love or hate, For will in us is over-rul'd by fate."

"Earth loves to gibber o'er her dross, Her golden souls, to waste; The cup she fills for her god-men Is a bitter cup to taste."

"For him who fain would teach the world The world holds hate in fee— For Socrates, the hemlock cup; For Christ, Gethsemane."

"He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch To gain or lose it all."

"Nullo fata loco possis excludere."

"All the great things of life are swiftly done, Creation, death, and love the double gate. However much we dawdle in the sun We have to hurry at the touch of Fate."

"And sing to those that hold the vital shears; And turn the adamantine spindle round, On which the fate of gods and men is wound."

"Fixed, fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute."

"Necessity and chance Approach not me, and what I will is fate."

"The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."

"Big with the fate of Rome."

"Geminos, horoscope, varo Producis genio."

""Thou shalt see me at Philippi," was the remark of the spectre which appeared to Brutus in his tent at Abydos [B.C. 42]. Brutus answered boldly: "I will meet thee there." At Philippi the spectre reappeared, and Brutus, after being defeated, died upon his own sword."

"But blind to former as to future fate, What mortal knows his pre-existent state?"

"Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate."

"A brave man struggling in the storms of fate."

"As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come."

"He putteth down one and setteth up another."

"Fate sits on these dark battlements, and frowns; And as the portals open to receive me, Her voice, in sullen echoes, through the courts, Tells of a nameless deed."

"Sæpe calamitas solatium est nosse sortem suam."

"Der Zug des Herzens ist des Schicksals Stimme."

"Mach deine Rechnung mit dem Himmel, Vogt! Fort musst du, deine Uhr ist abgelaufen."

"Fata volentem ducunt, nolentem trahunt."

"Multi ad fatum Venere suum dum fata timent."

"Nemo fit fato nocens."

"Yet what are they, the learned and the great? Awhile of longer wonderment the theme! Who shall presume to prophesy their date, Where nought is certain save the uncertainty of fate?"

"Two shall be born, the whole wide world apart, And speak in different tongues, and have no thought Each of the other's being; and have no heed; And these, o'er unknown seas to unknown lands Shall cross, escaping wreck, defying death; And, all unconsciously, shape every act to this one end: That one day out of darkness they shall meet And read life's meanings in each other's eyes."

"Jacta alea esto. (Jacta est alea.)"

"From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives forever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea."

"Sometimes an hour of Fate's serenest weather Strikes through our changeful sky its coming beams; Somewhere above us, in elusive ether, Waits the fulfilment of our dearest dreams."

"Ad restim mihi quidem res rediit planissume."

"Dare fatis vela."

"Quo fata trahunt retrahuntque sequamur."

"Fata viam invenient."

"Perge; decet. Forsan miseros meliora sequentur."

"Fata vocant."

"I saw him even now going the way of all flesh."

"Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power, Our golden treasure, and our purple state. They cannot ward the inevitable hour, Nor stay the fearful violence of fate."

"This day we fashion Destiny, our web of Fate we spin."

"Blindlings that er blos den Willen des Geschickes."

"Des Schiksals Zwang ist bjtter."

"My fearful trust "en vogant la galère." (Come what may.)"