If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow.
—William McFee (1881–1966) English Writer
Fate throws fortune, but not everyone catches.
—Polish Proverb
Unconscious of your story, you are in its grasp; but with consciousness, an alchemical process begins: The solidity of the complex dissolves and you can open up to the arrival of a new archetype, the birth of a new cycle of life. In the shadow, then, lies our myth and our fate.
—Connie Zweig (b.1949) American Minister, Columnist, Psychotherapist
Accept fate, and move on. Don’t yield to the seductive pull of self-pity. Acting like a victim threatens your future.
—Unknown
Statesman only talk of fate when they have blundered.
—Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Italian Head of State, Politician
We create our fate every day we live.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
A door that seems to stand open must be a man’s size, or it is not the door that providence means for him.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
If you believe in fate, believe in it, at least, for your good.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need”. It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege!! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures, followed by wreckage, were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow’d.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Lies but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
—William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English Poet, Critic, Editor
Seek not to know what must not be reveal, for joy only flows where fate is most concealed. A busy person would find their sorrows much more; if future fortunes were known before!
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
A bald man scorched by the rays on sun on his head, seeking shade, guided by his fate, took shelter under a palm tree hoping to get some relief. Even there, a big fruit fell from the tree, with a loud noise broke his head and killed him. Usually, troubles always follow an unlucky person wherever he goes.
—Neetishatakam
Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
Thought presides over all.—Fate, that dead phantom, shall vanish from action, and providence alone be visible in heaven and on earth.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
It’s the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Chance generally favors the prudent.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
There’s much to be said for challenging fate instead of ducking behind it.
—Diana Trilling (1905–96) American Literary Critic, Author
There is but one philosophy and its name is fortitude! To bear is to conquer our fate.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was, from eternity, spinning the thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
All is created and goes according to order, yet o’er our lifetime rules an uncertain fate.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
All things are by fate, but poor blind man sees but a part of the chain, the nearest link, his eyes not reaching to that equal beam which poises all above.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
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 (1803–82) American Philosopher
A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
The fates lead the willing, and drag the unwilling.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.
—Amy Tan (b.1952) Chinese-American Novelist
Sail on ship of state, sail on, I union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, with all its hopes of future years, is hanging on thy fate!
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
A strict belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand there is comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
I have a wife, I have sons: all of them hostages given to fate.
—Lucian (c.120–c.200 CE) Greek Satirist, Rhetorician, Writer
Fate keeps on happening.
—Anita Loos (1888–1981) American Actor, Novelist, Screenwriter
What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.
—Donald Trump (b.1946) American Businessperson, Head of State
One must either be the hammer or the anvil.
—German Proverb
Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.
—Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) (b.1970) American Novelist
Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
They… who await
No gifts from Chance, have conquered Fate.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
I see it only that thyself is here, and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels and the supreme being shall not be absent from the chamber where thou sittest.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey;
This Flecknoe found, who like Augustus young
Was call’d to empire, and had govern’d long:
In prose and verse, was own’d, without dispute
Through all the realms of nonsense, absolute.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
Fate with impartial hand turns out the doom of high and low; her capacious urn is constantly shaking out the names of all mankind.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Every man is the architect of his own future.
—Anonymous
Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat.
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) Irish Novelist, Short-story Writer
Dreadful is the mysterious power of fate; there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by walled city or dark, seabeaten ships.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Fate laughs at probabilities.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher