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Quotes About Destiny

Starbuck, of late I've felt strangely moved to thee; ever since that hour we both saw—thou know'st what, in one another's eyes. But in this matter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this hand—a lipless, unfeatured blank.
~ Herman Melville
This warp seemed necessity; and here, thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads.
~ Herman Melville
No se lo que puede llegar, pero sea lo que sea, iré hacia ello riéndome
~ Herman Melville
By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike.
~ Herman Melville
Yes, and sometimes the melancholy expression would have in it a touch of soft yearning, as if Claggart could even have loved Billy but for fate and ban.
~ Herman Melville
Forehead to forehead I meet thee, this third time, Moby Dick!
~ Herman Melville
But why say more? All men live enveloped in whale- lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.
~ Herman Melville
Life is governed by chance, not wisdom.
~ Herman Melville
Cada ballenera lleva un buen número de cartas para varias naves: entregarlas a los destinatarios depende del mero azar de encontrarlos en los cuatro océanos. Así, muchas cartas nunca llegan a destino, y otras sólo son recibidas cuando ya han cumplido dos o tres años.
~ Herman Melville
The reason for the prosperity of the wicked, and also for the troubles of the good, is not in our hands." Then
~ Herman Wouk
For it was not a god invading Greece, but a man; and no man now existed or ever would exist who was not liable to misfortune from the day of his birth— and the greater the man, the greater the misfortune. Their invader therefore, being only human, was bound to fall from his glory.
~ Herodotus
???? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ???????? ???????. You can see from that, Croesus, that man is entirely a creature of chance" (Trans. de Sélincourt)
~ Herodotus
Let me put it thus: that from the height of Weissenstein I saw, as it were, my religion. I mean, humility, the fear of death, the terror of height and of distance, the glory of God, the infinite potentiality of reception whence springs that divine thirst of the soul; my aspiration also towards completion, and my confidence in the dual destiny.
~ Hilaire Belloc
A man going uphill may be at the same level as another man going down hill; but they are facing different ways and have different destinies. Our world, passing out of the old Paganism of Greece and Rome towards the consummation of Christendom and a Catholic civilization from which we all derive, is the very negation of the same world leaving the light of its ancestral religion and sliding back into the dark.
~ Hilaire Belloc
Those who are made can be unmade.
~ Hilary Mantel
But things never go according to plan. In fact, I think if you're really attached to controlling your future, you should plan for the opposite of what you want just to confuse the cosmic comedians whose sole job is to figure out what you think your future should hold so they can preclude it from ever happening.
~ Hollis Gillespie
Why is it that when Robert Redford-cum-Denys Finch Hatton flies away in the golden glow out of Africa, he is pursuing his destiny? And when I walk away I'm just a chick who's scared of commitment and on the run, who's weird for ignoring Glamour magazine's predictions of my eggs drying up? Learning is an underrated form of liberation.
~ Holly Morris
Come, Friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so? Even Patroclus died, a far, far better man than you. And look, you see how handsome and powerful I am? The son of a great man, the mother who gave me life-- A deathless goddess. But even for me, I tell you, Death and the strong force of fate are waiting. There will come a dawn or sunset or high noon When a man will take my life in battle too-- flinging a spear perhaps Or whipping a deadly arrow off his bow.
~ Homer
Here, therefore, huge and mighty warrior though you be, here shall you die.
~ Homer
I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.
~ Homer
And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you— it's born with us the day that we are born.
~ Homer
Heaven has appointed us dwellers on earth a time for all things.
~ Homer
One omen is best; Defending the fatherland
~ Homer
If you are one of earth's inhabitants, how blest your father, and your gentle mother, blest all your kin. I know what happiness must send the warm tears to their eyes, each time they see their wondrous child go to the dancing! But one man's destiny is more than blest—he who prevails, and takes you as his bride. Never have I laid eyes on equal beauty in man or woman. I am hushed indeed.
~ Homer