Fate quotes
2.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside fate — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener."
"Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it."
"It is not every man's fate to marry the woman who loves him best"
"If there is anything that can bind the heavenly mind of man to this dreary exile of our earthly home and can reconcile us with our fate so that one can enjoy living,-then it is verily the enjoyment of the mathematical sciences and astronomy."
"No one's fate is of any interest to you except your own."
"That which we do not confront in ourselves we will meet as fate."
"Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven."
"Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors, concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods-in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations."
"As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends correspondingly to increase. And the dictator will do well to encourage that freedom...it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate."
"We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone."
"The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation."
"From tonight onwards, take complete control of your life. Decide, once and for all, to be the master of your fate. Run your own race. Discover your calling and you will start to experience the ecstasy of an inspired life."
"the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril."
"I lay and cried, and began to feel again, to admit I was human, vulnerable, sensitive. I began to remember how it had been before; how there was that germ of positive creativeness. Character is fate; and damn, I'd better work on my character. I had been withdrawing into a retreat of numbness: it is so much safer to NOT feel, NOT to let the world touch one."
"If the U.S. monopoly capitalist groups persist in pushing their policies of aggression and war, the day is bound to come when they will be hanged by the people of the whole world. The same fate awaits the accomplices of the United States."
"For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle (home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics) he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him."
"The general public are not even aware of major decisions that will determine their fate, hence are in no position to influence them"
"Conduct, which involves a decision of the ultimate fate of the agent cannot be based on illusions."
"We were taught never to give up, never to passively accept fate, but to exhaust every last ounce of will and hope in the face of any challenge."
"So, after all, we are but puppets, creatures of our fate, not commanding it but being molded by it."
