Quotes About Destiny

You are a woman marked for sorrow.

CHORUS: You that live in my ancestral Thebes, behold this Oedipus,- him who knew the famous riddles and was a man most masterful; not a citizen who did not look with envy on his lot- see him now and see the breakers of misfortune swallow him! Look upon that last day always. Count no mortal happy till he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain.

Nothing great enters the life of mortals without a curse.

But when a god sends harm, no man can sidestep it, no matter how strong he may be.

You'll never find a man on Earth, if a god leads him on, who can escape his fate.

Come, Fate, a friend at need, Come with all speed! Come, my best friend, And speed my end! Away, away! Let me not look upon another day!

Best of children, sisters arm-in-arm, we must bear what the gods give us to bear-- don't fire up your hearts with so much grief. No reason to blame the pass you've come to now.

And instead my beloved, luck sent you back to me colder than ashes, later than shadow.

I have seen or heard of no other man whom destiny treated with such enmity as it did Philoktetes

So here I am, against my will and yours too, well I know-- no one wants the man who brings bad news.

All things the long and countless years first draw from darkness, then bury from light; and there is nothing for which man may not look. The dreaded oath is vanquished, and the stubborn will.

Oft we know not till we see. Weak is human prophecy. Judge not, till the hour have taught thee What the destinies have brought thee.

Look and learn all citizens of Thebes. This is Oedipus. He, who read the famous riddle, and we hailed chief of men, All envied his power, glory, and good fortune. Now upon his head the sea of disaster crashes down. Mortality is man's burden. Keep your eyes fixed on your last day. Call no man happy until he reaches it, and finds rest from suffering.

But when a god             strikes harm, a worse man often foils his better.

just thinking of all your days to come, the bitterness, the life that rough mankind will thrust upon you.

What men have seen they know;             but what shall come hereafter             no man before the event can see, 1420    nor what end waits for him.

Alas for the seed of man.

OEDIPUS: O, O, O, they will all come, all come out clearly! Light of the sun, let me look upon you no more after today! I who first saw the light bred of a match accursed, and accursed in my living with them I lived with, cursed in my killing.

Oed. Must I not fear my mother's marriage-bed?

Like a star his envied fortune mounted beaming far and wide: Now he sinks in seas of anguish, whelmed beneath a raging tide.

Not I. Only the gods can give you that.

Never since that time has this house got itself clear of rawblood butchery.

Laius was killed, they say, by certain travelers.

The powe if fate is something terrible. It cannot be escaped--not with wealth or by war, not with a tower ir a sea-lashed black ship.