Quotes about destiny

A collection of quotes on the topic of fate.

„I have been trying to point out that in our lives chance may have an astonishing influence and, if I may offer advice to the young laboratory worker, it would be this—never neglect an extraordinary appearance or happening. It may be—usually is, in fact—a false alarm that leads to nothing, but may on the other hand be the clue provided by fate to lead you to some important advance.“

— Alexander Fleming Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and sexiest man 1881 - 1955
Lecture at Harvard University. Quoted in Joseph Sambrook, David W. Russell, Molecular Cloning (2001), Vol. 1, 153.

Appearance, Chance, Falseness

„The anxiety of fate is conquered by the self-affirmation of the individual as an infinitely significant microcosmic representation of the universe.“

— Paul Tillich German-American theologian and philosopher 1886 - 1965
p. 120

Universe

„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, The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

Fight

„I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.“

— Gautama Buddha philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism -566 - -483 BC
G. K. Chesterton, in "On Holland" in Illustrated London News (29 April 1922)

Men

„We cannot rest while Brazilians are going hungry, while families are living in the streets, while poor children are abandoned to their own fates and while crack and crack dens rule.“

— Dilma Rousseff 36th President of Brazil 1947
First speech http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/01/dilma-rousseff-wins-brazil-president after being elected President, October 31.

Children, Family

„If you don't like the hand that fate's dealt you, fight for a new one.“

— Masashi Kishimoto Japanese manga artist 1974

Fight

„The self… is not an organic thing that has a specific location, whose fundamental fate is to be born, to mature, to die; it is a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a scene that is presented.“

— Erving Goffman Sociologist, writer, academic 1922 - 1982
p 252; Cited in: Javier Trevino, Goffman's Legacy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003, p. 55.

„Fate withstands.“

— Virgil Ancient Roman poet -70 - -19 BC
Fata obstant. Line 440 (tr. Fairclough)

„When an inner situation is not made conscious it appears outside as fate.“

— C.G. Jung Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology 1875 - 1961

Appearance

„I am not worthy to speak loudly of Adolf Hitler, nor do his life and deeds call for sentimental arousal. He was a warrior, a warrior for mankind, and a preacher of the gospel of justice for all nations. He was a reformer of the highest order, and his historical fate was that he lived in a time of unequalled cruelty, which felled him in the end. Thus the ordinary Western European may look upon Adolf Hitler. And we, his close followers, bow our heads at his death.“

— Knut Hamsun Norwegian novelist and Nobel Prize recipient 1859 - 1952
An obituary for Adolf Hitler, Aftenposten (7 May 1945)

Life, Death, Justice, Time

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„You don't find love, it finds you. It's got a little bit to do with destiny, fate, and what's written in the stars.“

— Anaïs Nin writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903 - 1977

Love, Star

„People say I'm strange that way,
'Cause I love such elementary things,
It's been my fate to compensate
For the childhood I've never known.“

— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009
Childhood

Love, People, Way, Childhood

„Greater fates gain greater rewards“

— Heraclitus pre-Socratic Greek philosopher -535 - -475 BC
As quoted by The Fragments of the Work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on Nature; Translated from the Greek Text of Bywater, with an Introduction Historical and Critical, by G. T. W. Patrick. Page 108 https://books.google.com/books?id=gLxQZb3TMYgC&lpg=PA108&ots=RUCu2BIyRB&dq=Greater%20fates%20gain%20greater%20rewards.&pg=PA108#v=onepage&q=Greater%20fates%20gain%20greater%20rewards.&f=false Alternative translation: Big results require big ambitions.

„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, Meditations

Love, People, Heart

„The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate,
But in this world a spell of health is the best state.
What men call sovereignty is a worldly strife and constant war;
Worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest of all estates.“

— Suleiman Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1494 - 1566
Mansel, Philip, Constantinople: city of the world's desire 1453-1924 (1995), p. 84

Men, God, War, People

„Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say
that we devise their misery. But they
themselves- in their depravity- design
grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.“

— Homér, The Odyssey

Men, God

„Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Etiam egestas wisi a erat. Morbi imperdiet, mauris ac auctor dictum.“

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