Quotes About Fate

She doesn't think it's a good idea to know the future, because you can hardly ever change it, so why suffer twice?

You take the first step, and to save yourself from the consequences, you take the next one. In times like ours, there are only two directions: up or plummet.

I suppose it's everyone's fate to be reduced to quaintness by those younger than themselves.

What could he have done or said differently? What change would have altered the course of events? In the big picture, nothing. In the small picture, so much.

For the heart was both key and lock, and he who could master the hearts of men and learn their secrets was well on the way to mastering the Fates and controlling the thread of his own destiny.

It was true, I took too much for granted; I trusted fate, back then.

That's the kind of stories I know. Sad ones. Anyway, taken to it's logical conclusion, every story is sad, because at the end everyone dies.

He'll find out somehow, because journeys end in lovers meeting.

The Wheel of Fortune rotates, fickle as the moon. Soon those who were down will move upwards. And vice versa, of course

Thy only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die, John and Mary die, John and Mary die.

for it is the fate of a woman Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a ghost that is speechless, Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence. Hence is the inner life of so many suffering women Sunless and silent and deep, like subterranean rivers Running through caverns of darkness.… —HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, "The Courtship of Miles Standish," 1858.

I did not give him a straight answer, because saying what you really want out loud brings bad luck, and then the good thing will never happen. It might not happen anyway, but just to make sure, you should be careful about saying what you want or even wanting anything, as you may be punished for it.

We would not be Human if we did not prefer to be the devourers rather than the devoured, but either is a blessing. Should your life be required of you, rest assured that it is required by Life.

The answer can only be that God has given Adam free will, and therefore Adam may do things that God Himself cannot anticipate in advance.

As a species we're doomed by hope, then?

Death always comes without knocking. Why now? is the cry. Why so soon? It's the cry of a child being called home at dusk, it's the universal protest against Time. Just remember, dear Friends: What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.

I even spent a certain amount of time worrying about the Spiritualist doctrines: If The Other Side was so wonderful, why did the spirits devote most of their messages to warnings? Instead of telling their loved ones to avoid slippery stairs and unsafe cars and starchy foods, they should have been luring them over cliffs and bridges and into lakes, spurring them on to greater feats of intemperance and gluttony, in order to hasten their passage to the brighter shore.

Maybe she herself is a kind of fatal woman, like Marilyn Monroe in Niagara, with invisible spider webs coming out of her, entangling men because they can't help it, and the spider can't help it either because it's her nature. Maybe she's doomed to be sticky.

If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you'd be doomed. You'd be ruined as God. You'd be a stone. You'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You'd never love anyone, ever again. You'd never dare to." ? Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

There are some women who seem to be born without fear, just as there are people who are born without the ability to feel pain...Providence appears to protect such women, maybe out of astonishment.

What will it do to Jimmy's state of mind if he opens his eyes and sees three of his former beloveds bending over him like the three Fates? Demanding his everlasting love, his apologies, his blood in a cat food saucer?

Any death is stupid from the viewpoint of whoever is undergoing it, Adam One used to say, because no matter how much you've been warned, Death always comes without knocking. Why now? is the cry. Why so soon? It's the cry of a child being called home at dusk, it's the universal protest against Time. Just remember, dear Friends: What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question. // The Year of the Flood

This was the story of the Concubine Cut into Twelve Pieces.

Is this really your fate, to enter poetry and become transparent?