“We are still masters of our fate.
We are still captains of our souls.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Source: The Crisis
This may have inspired later lines of "A Challenge" from "Quatrains" by James Benjamin Kenyon, published in An American Anthology, 1787-1900 (1901) edited by Edmund Clarence Stedman:
Arise, O Soul, and gird thee up anew,
Though the black camel Death kneel at thy gate;
No beggar thou that thou for alms shouldst sue:
Be the proud captain still of thine own fate.
Invictus (1875)
“We are still masters of our fate.
We are still captains of our souls.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Source: The Crisis
“Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am.”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist
Source: Stand Still Like the Hummingbird
“My heart returns to me what I turn away. I am my own master but not always master of myself.”
Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer
The Powerbook (2000)
“I am rather impatient to know the fate of my best gown.”
Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist
Letter to Cassandra (1799-05-17) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters