Quotes about destiny
A collection of quotes on the topic of fate.
Related topicsTotal 1297 quotes fate, filter:
„To turn away from the enemy is cowardice. Misfortune is the fate of the enemy.“
— Mehmed II Ottoman sultan 1432 - 1481
When he learned that the Crusaders had come toward him
Source: Ahmet Akgündüz - Mehmed's tolerance http://www.ahmetakyol.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9849&Itemid=47
„And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it,
neither brave man nor coward, I tell you—
it's born with us the day that we are born.“
VI. 488–489 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Original: (el) Μοῖραν δ' οὔ τινά φημι πεφυγμένον ἔμμεναι ἀνδρῶν,
οὐ κακὸν οὐδὲ μὲν ἐσθλόν, ἐπὴν τὰ πρῶτα γένηται.
„Time is the architect of fate,
fleeting omen, pure phantom
in enchanting light of absence,
and our life the play of love and death,
only love will never die,
because In love no longer ‘thou’ and ‘I’ exist,
only the blossom of sacred unity.“
— Alexis Karpouzos 1967
Source: https://hellopoetry.com/alexis-karpouzos/
„You are the architect of your own destiny; you are the master of your own fate; you are behind the steering wheel of your life.“
— Brian Tracy American motivational speaker and writer 1944
The 21 Success Secrets of Self-made Millionaires (2001), Conclusion : Success Is Predictable, p. 63
Context: You are the architect of your own destiny; you are the master of your own fate; you are behind the steering wheel of your life. There are no limitations to what you can do, have, or be. Except the limitations you place on yourself by your own thinking.
„In my opinion, condemning the Zionist movement as "nationalistic" is unjustified. Consider the path by which Herzl came to his mission. Initially he had been completely cosmopolitan. But during the Dreyfus trial in Paris he suddenly realized with great clarity how precarious was the situation of the Jews in the western world. And courageously he drew the conclusion that we are discriminated against or murdered not because we are Germans, Frenchmen, Americans, etc. of the "Jewish faith" but simply because we are Jews. Thus already our precarious situation forces us to stand together irrespective of our citizenship.
Zionism gave the German Jews no great protection against annihilation. But it did give the survivors the inner strength to endure the debacle with dignity and without losing their healthy self respect. Keep in mind that perhaps a similar fate could be lying in wait for your children.“
— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955
c. 1946, p. 63-64
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)
„There is no Brahmin or Sudra (Backard Caste) or Pariah (the Untouchables) in England. In Russia you do not have Varnasrama (Casteism) dharma or fate.“
— Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Tamil politician and social reformer 1879 - 1973
Veeramani, Collected Works of Periyar, p. 486.
Untouchability
„The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life.“
— Viktor E. Frankl, book Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning (1946; 1959; 1984)
Context: The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
„Since I won't let the critics seal my fate, they
keep hollering I'm full of hate.
But they don't really hurt me none, 'cause
I'm doing good and having fun.“
— Muhammad Ali, book The Soul of a Butterfly
"Still the Greatest", p. 109
The Soul of a Butterfly (2004)
„No experience has been too unimportant, and the smallest event unfolds like a fate, and fate itself is like a wonderful, wide fabric in which every thread is guided by an infinitely tender hand and laid alongside another thread and is held and supported by a hundred others.“
— Rainer Maria Rilke, book Letters to a Young Poet
Letter Three (23 April 1903)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
„If I knew that it was fated for me to be sick, I would even wish for it; for the foot also, if it had intelligence, would volunteer to get muddy.“
— Chrysippus ancient Greek philosopher -281 - -208 BC
As quoted by Epictetus, Discourses, ii. 6. 10.
„On the surface it may seem that wars are caused by economic and political questions, but in fact they are caused by our wholesale slaughter of animals. The laws of justice are inexorable, and human beings are going to have to pay with their own blood … We kill animals, but nature is an organic whole, and by killing animals we are, as it were, affecting certain glands in that organism. When this happens, the balance of the organism is disrupted, and it is not surprising that before long war breaks out among men. Yes, human beings have slaughtered millions of animals for their meat, without realizing that on the invisible plane those animals are linked to other human beings, and it is they who will now have to share the fate of the animals. When we slaughter animals we are slaughtering human beings. Everybody agrees that it is time to establish the reign of peace in the world, that there must be no more wars. Yes, but war will go on just as long as we continue to slaughter animals, because by destroying them we are destroying ourselves.“
— Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov Bulgarian philosopher 1900 - 1986
The Yoga of Nutrition, Editions Prosveta, 2012 ebook edition, pp. 24 https://books.google.it/books?id=jnoVCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT24-25.
„Not to know vice at all, and keep true state,
Is virtue, and not fate:
Next to that virtue is to know vice well,
And her black spite expel.“
— Ben Jonson English writer 1572 - 1637
Epode, lines 1-4
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio (1616), The Forest
„Certainly inside my heart I know degrees of difference. But I can't blame any of these men who share a common fate with me. The big folly of this trial is that it lacks the two men who are to blame for anything which is criminal, namely Hitler and Himmler.“
— Karl Dönitz President of Germany; admiral in command of German submarine forces during World War II 1891 - 1980
To Leon Goldensohn, July 14, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004.
„The Führer has nominated me as his successor. In full consciousness of my responsibilities I therefore assume the leadership of the German people at this fateful hour. My first task is to save German men and women from destruction by the advancing Bolshevist enemy. It is to serve this purpose alone that the military struggle continues. For as long as the British and the Americans continue to impede the accomplishments of this task, we must also continue to fight and defend ourselves against them. The British and the Americans in that case will not be fighting in the interests of their own peoples, but solely for the expansion of Bolshevism in Europe.“
— Karl Dönitz President of Germany; admiral in command of German submarine forces during World War II 1891 - 1980
May 1, 1945, quoted in "Memoirs: Ten Years And Twenty Days" - Page 445 - by Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz - History - 1997.
„But where is the antidote for lucid despair, perfectly articulated, proud, and sure? All of us are miserable, but how many know it? The consciousness of misery is too serious a disease to figure in an arithmetic of agonies or in the catalogues of the Incurable. It belittles the prestige of hell, and converts the slaughterhouses of time into idyls. What sin have you committed to be born, what crime to exist? Your suffering like your fate is without motive. To suffer, truly to suffer, is to accept the invasion of ills without the excuse of causality, as a favor of demented nature, as a negative miracle...“
— Emil M. Cioran, book A Short History of Decay
A Short History of Decay (1949)
„We all play chess with Fate as partner. He makes a move, we make a move. He tries to checkmate us in three moves, we try to prevent it. We know we can't win, but we're driven to give him a good fight.“
— Isaac Bashevis Singer Polish-born Jewish-American author 1902 - 1991
Source: The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
„Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate
rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate;
And many a Knot unravel'd by the Road;
But not the Master-knot of Human Fate.“
— Omar Khayyám Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer 1048 - 1131
The Rubaiyat (1120)