Quotes about destiny

„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, book Meditations

Source: Meditations

„Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept.“

—  Hermann Hesse, book Demian

Source: Demian (1919), p. 162
Context: One of the aphorisms occurred to me now and I wrote it under the picture: "Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept." That was clear to me now.

„Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend.“

—  Christopher Marlowe English dramatist, poet and translator 1564 - 1593

Aeneas, Act I, scene i, line 149
Dido (c. 1586)

„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

„If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.“

—  Amy Tan American novelist 1952

„One minute decides the outcome of a battle, one hour the success of a campaign, one day the fate of empires.“

—  Alexander Suvorov Russian military commander 1730 - 1800

other version: One minute can decide the outcome of the battle, one hour - the outcome of the campaign, and one day - the fate of the country.
"Encyclopedia of Russian History" - Page 1504 by James R. Millar - Soviet Union - 2004.

„Chorus: Let not thy love to man o'erleap the bounds
Of reason, nor neglect thy wretched state:
So my fond hope suggests thou shalt be free
From these base chains, nor less in power than Jove.
Prometheus: Not thus — it is not in the Fates that thus
These things should end; crush'd with a thousand wrongs,
A thousand woes, I shall escape these chains.
Necessity is stronger far than art.
Chorus: Who then is ruler of necessity?
Prometheus: The triple Fates and unforgetting Furies.
Chorus: Must Jove then yield to their superior power?
Prometheus: He no way shall escape his destined fate.
Chorus: What, but eternal empire, is his fate?
Prometheus: Thou mayst not know this now: forbear to inquire.
Chorus: Is it of moment what thou keep'st thus close?
Prometheus: No more of this discourse; it is not time
Now to disclose that which requires the seal
Of strictest secresy; by guarding which I shall escape the misery of these chains.“

—  Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 510–524, as translated by R. Potter (1860)

„Silence is the general consecration of the universe. Silence is the invisible laying on of the Divine Pontiff's hands upon the world. Silence is at once the most harmless and the most awful thing in all nature. It speaks of the Reserved Forces of Fate. Silence is the only Voice of our God.“

—  Herman Melville, book Pierre: or, The Ambiguities

Bk. XIV, ch. 1
A paraphrase of the last portion of this has sometimes been cited as a quotation of Melville: God's one and only voice is silence.
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852)

„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
Poetry

„Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it.“

—  Jeanette Winterson English writer 1959

„We do not hesitate to help and support the brother, the ill-fated friend or the needy wherever they are. This is our message to the world, and this is the United Arab Emirates.“

—  Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum Emirati politician 1949

Quotes on Philanthropy, http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=99c18960a5a11310VgnVCM1000004d64a8c0RCRD&appInstanceName=default, sheikhmohammed.ae.

„You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us. We will not understand it until it’s too late. And yet we are the lucky ones. Those who will be affected the hardest are already suffering the consequences. But their voices are not heard.“

—  Greta Thunberg Swedish climate change activist 2003

2019, "You did not act in time" (April 2019)

„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.
biographyonline.net http://www.biographyonline.net/scientists/alex-fleming.html

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

—  Paul Tillich, book The Courage to Be

Source: The Courage to Be (1952), p. 120

„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

„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 -563 - -483 BC

G. K. Chesterton, in "On Holland" in Illustrated London News (29 April 1922)
Misattributed

„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.
2010

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

—  Masashi Kishimoto Japanese manga artist 1974

„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, book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

p 252; Cited in: Javier Trevino, Goffman's Legacy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003, p. 55.
1950s-1960s, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1959