“Fate is fickle, and the company of unwilling friends short lived.”

Source: The Ribbajack: and Other Haunting Tales

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "Fate is fickle, and the company of unwilling friends short lived." by Brian Jacques?

Brian Jacques37

British fiction writer known for Redwall animal fantasy nov… 1939–2011

Kyril Bonfiglioli (1928–1985) British art dealer

Source: The Mortdecai Trilogy, After You With The Pistol (1979), Ch. 20.

“But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Variant: We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self destruction.
Source: Mockingjay

“Those who are unwilling to admit error are fated to repeat it?”

Lois McMaster Bujold book The Hallowed Hunt

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Hallowed Hunt (2005), Chapter 4 (p. 57)

“War itself is not a mere science but a more fickle sort of thing, often subject to fate or chance, being an entirely human enterprise…”

Victor Davis Hanson (1953) American military historian, essayist, university professor

2000s, A War Like No Other - How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War (2005)

“Now we're in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated. But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss and Plutarch Heavensbee (p. 379)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: “Are you preparing for another war, Plutarch?” I ask.
“Oh, not now. Now we’re in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated,” he says. “But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We’re fickle, stupid beings with a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss.”
“What?” I ask.
“The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that.“

“Each man has a breaking point, no matter how strong his spirit. Somewhere, deep inside him, there is a flaw that only the fickle cruelty of fate can find.”

David Gemmell book Legend

Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 7