“If a man who claims to see the future is a fool,
how much more so, the man who believes he can control it?
We think we steer the ship of fate,
but all of us are guided by unseen stars.”

—  Megan Whalen Turner, book Thick as Thieves

Enoclitus (Epigraph)
Thick as Thieves

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If a man who claims to see the future is a fool, how much more so, the man who believes he can control it? We think w…" by Megan Whalen Turner?
Megan Whalen Turner photo
Megan Whalen Turner95
American children's writer 1965

Related quotes

E. W. Howe photo

“A man who does not fool himself seldom cares much about fooling others. But the man who claims to have seen a ghost wants everybody else to believe in ghosts.”

E. W. Howe (1853–1937) Novelist, magazine and newspaper editor

Ventures in Common Sense (1919), p87.

Robert Jordan photo

“A man who trusts everyone is a fool, and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools, if we live long enough.”

Robert Jordan Winter's Heart

Lews Therin Telamon
(9 November 2000)
Source: Winter's Heart

Omar Bradley photo

“It is time that we steered by the stars, not by the lights of each passing ship.”

Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II

Statement (31 May 1948), quoted in An Inconvenient Truth : The Planetary Emergency Of Global Warming And What We Can Do About It (2006) by Al Gore

John Calvin photo

“Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Heinrich Heine photo

“In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides.”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

José Rizal photo

“God has made man a cosmopolite. He created seas for ships to glide on, the wind to push them, and the stars to guide them even in darkest night.”

José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist

"Los Viajes"

Alfred Noyes photo

“The fool hath said … The fool hath said
And we, who deemed him wise,
We, who believed that Thou wast dead,
How should we seek Thine eyes?How should we seek to Thee for power,
Who scorned Thee yesterday?
How should we kneel in this dread hour?
Lord, teach us how to pray.”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

Dedication, later published as "A Prayer in Time of War"
A Belgian Christmas Eve (1915)

William Lane Craig photo

“The man who claims to have no need of philosophy is the one most apt to be fooled by it.”

William Lane Craig (1949) American Christian apologist and evangelist

A Reasonable Response: Answers to Tough Questions on God, Christianity, and the Bible (2013)

Witter Bynner photo

“A man who knows how little he knows is well, a man who knows how much he knows is sick.”

Witter Bynner (1881–1968) American author

The Way of Life, According to Laotzu, 1944.

Jorge Luis Borges photo

“We all think that fate has dealt us a wretched sort of lot in life, and that others must be better. […] I presume that in the heaven of the Blessèd there are those who believe that the advantages of that locale are much exaggerated by theologists, who have never been there themselves.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

"The Duel", in Brodie's Report (1970); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)

Related topics