Quotes About Destiny

zo is het leven. voor hetzelfde geld had ik helemaal ergens anders gezeten, met geheel andere mensen. maar ik stel me niet meer de vraag: 'waar ben ik?' ik ben nu eenmaal waar ik ben, en dat al vele jaren lang. ik vecht niet tegen het lot, want zo'n gevecht eindigt toch altijd in een gelijkspel. als ik maar dag na dag ouder word, ben ik al tevreden.

The poor old Past,The Future's slave.

One never reaches home,' she said. 'But where paths that have an affinity for each other intersect, the whole world looks like home, for a time.

If thou but settest foot on this path, thou shalt see it everywhere.

Because he had enjoyed every advantage since birth, one of the few privileges denied to Benjamin Rash was that of a heroic rise: his was not a story of resilience and preseverance of the tale of an unbreakable will forging a golden destiny for itself out of little more than dross. In and out of sleep. Like a needle coming out from under a black cloth and then vanishing again. Unthreaded.

Whatever the past may have handed on to us, it is up to each one of us to chisel our present out of the shapeless block of the future.

It is the gods' custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness.

Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

But I like not these great success of yours for I know how jealous are the gods.

Mens fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.

The destiny of man is in his own soul.

He asked, 'Croesus, who told you to attack my land and meet me as an enemy instead of a friend?' The King replied, 'It was caused by your good fate and my bad fate. It was the fault of the Greek gods, who with their arrogance, encouraged me to march onto your lands. Nobody is mad enough to choose war whilst there is peace. During times of peace, the sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who send their sons to the grave.

Now if a man thus favoured died as he has lived, he will be just the one you are looking for: the only sort of person who deserves to be called happy. But mark this: until he is dead, keep the word "happy" in reserve. Till then, he is not happy, but only lucky...

human prosperity never abides long in the same place

What the History is really about lies behind this: man, giant-sized, seen against the background of the entire world, universalized in his conflict with destiny, the gods, and the cosmic order. The medium that is most fertile in showing the true nature of reality is the human mind, remembering, reflective, and fertile most of all when its memory and reflection are put at the service of its dreaming and fantastic side.

Fate stalks us with depressing monotony from womb to tomb, and, when we are least expecting it, deals us a series of crushing blows from behind.

It is my destiny to live forever, though my survival will bring final destruction to the human race. However, it is possible for me to be killed, and whether I live or die makes no great difference. In truth, death may be the only absolute freedom there is.

It is easier to command a lapdog or a mule for a whole day than one's own fate for half-an-hour.

It is not written that great men shall be happy men.

The princess] looks out and sees the humble musician with his lute. But unless the musician turns out to be a prince in disguise, this story cannot end well.

It's all right for you, you and Danton. I have to go and stutter for two hours at the Jacobins and probably be knocked down again by maddened violin makers and trampled by all sorts of tradesmen. Whilst Danton spends his evenings feeling up his new girlfriend and you lie around here in a nice fever, not too high. If you're an instrument of destiny, and anyone would do instead, why don't you take a holiday?

I daresay something will happen, between now and '91, to make your fortunes look up.

Harsh, yes . . . but the question is, have you picked your prince? Because that is what you do, you choose him, and you know what he is. And then, when you have chosen, you say yes to him—yes, that is possible, yes, that can be done. If you don't like Henry, you can go abroad and find another prince, but I tell you—if this were Italy, Katherine would be cold in her tomb.