Quotes and passages on fate

Perhaps fate isn't blind after all.
Perhaps it's capable of fantasy,
even compassion.

Elie Wiesel
The Time of the Uprooted

Fate is a misplaced retreat. Many people rationalize an unexplained event as fate and shrug their shoulders when it occurs. But that is not what fate is. The world operates as a series of circles that are invisible, for they extend to the upper air. Fate is where these circles cut to earth. Since we cannot see them, do not know their content, and have no sense of their width, it is impossible to predict when these cuts will slice into our reality. When this happens, we call it fate. Fate is not a chance event but one that is inevitable, we are simply blind to its nature and time. James Levine The Blue Notebook

Fate is not what we decide or make our goal. It is what we are revealed to be in the working out of fate. We act in the dark. Everything we do has a significance that escapes us and overturns all our certainties. Stelios Ramphos Fate and Ambiguity in Oedipus the King

They may well fear fate who have any infirmity of habit or aim: but they who rest on what is have a destiny beyond destiny, and can make mouths of fortune. Orison Swett Marden Architects of Fate

I am a firm believer in fate. That no matter what we feel or what we may think we want or even what's best for us, that it is all predetermined. And most importantly, fate is completely out of our hands. Therefore, I decided long ago to let life happen as it happens. I also strongly believe that we are all here for a reason, something to be learned, and by simply letting life take its course than we shall learn what that is. Wanda F. Ross Reconcilable Fate

When we consider the incidents of former days, and perceive, while
reviewing the long line of causes, how the most important events of
our lives originated in the most trifling circumstances; how the beginning
of our greatest happiness or greatest misery is to be attributed to a delay,
to an accident, to a mistake; we learn a lesson of profound humility.

Arthur Helps
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd

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Our fate is something which exists outside ourselves, and which once
revealed expresses the meaning of our lives. Apart, however, from
soothsayers who claim to have a means of foretelling exactly what will
befall us, this kind of fate is only normally revealed after a life has
ended. Only then can the meaning of that life be understood.

Andrew Gamble
Politics and Fate

People often think that their individual fate is everything.
How wrong we are! It is enough to contemplate the invisible
to know how much there is that is greater than fate. Yes,
close your eyes, you will see what light renders invisible.
You will see the little shadow in the shadow. You will see
the signature from beyond. Listen to that fountain; don't
you see every tiny drop of water sparkling in the dark?
There is meaning.

Hugues de Montalembert
Invisible: A Memoir

Fate is a manifestation of natural causes. That’s it.
It’s not a conscious entity. It has no plan.

Walter Wykes
The Fly

Accept fate, and move on. Don't yield to the seductive pull
of self-pity. Acting like a victim threatens your future.

unattributed

I was thinking of my patients, and how the worst moment for them
was when they discovered they were masters of their own fate. It
was not a matter of bad or good luck. When they could no
longer blame fate, they were in despair.

Anaïs Nin

But if fate, as a limit-determination, still seems more powerful than free will, there are two things we should not forget: first that fate is only an abstract concept, a force without matter; that for the individual there is only an individual fate, that fate is nothing else but a chain of events; that people, as soon as we act, create our own events, determine our own fate; that, in general, events, insofar as they affect us, are, consciously or unconsciously, brought about by ourselves and must suit us. The activity of people, however, does not first begin with birth. But already with the embryo and perhaps--who can be certain here--already with our parents and forefathers. All of you who believe in the immortality of the soul, unless you are willing to allow the development of the mortal out of something immortal or are willing to grant that the soul flies about in thin air until it is at last lodged in a body, must also believe in the pre-existence of the soul. The Hindu says: Fate is nothing but the acts we have committed in a prior state of our being.

Friedrich Nietzsche
"Freedom of Will and Fate"

If you are blessed with great fortunes. . . you may love your fate.
But your fate never guarantees the security of those great fortunes.
As soon as you realize your helplessness at the mercy of your fate,
you are again in despair. Thus the hatred of fate can be generated
not only by misfortunes, but also by great fortunes. Your hatred
of fate is at the same time your hatred of your self. You hate your
self for being so helpless under the crushing power of fate.

T. K. Seung
"The Dionysian Mystery"

A person does not choose his or her fate; he or she only fulfills it. We are
bound by our fate as long as we accept the values that determine it.

Alexander Lowen

The world's greatest lie: At a certain point in our lives we lose
control of what's happening to us and our
lives become controlled by fate.

Paulo Coelho

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are
opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I
believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfill
our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain
moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called
"the love of your fate." Whatever your fate is, whatever the
hell happens, you say, "This is what I need." It may look like
a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a
challenge. If you bring love to that moment--not
discouragement--you will find the strength is there. Any
disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character,
your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when
the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.

Joseph Campbell

Just because Fate doesn't deal you the right cards, it doesn't
mean you should give up. It just means you have to play
the cards you get to their maximum potential.

Les Brown

Although fate presents the circumstances,
how you react depends on your character.

unattributed

Whatever limits us, we call Fate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There's much to be said for challenging
fate instead of ducking behind it.

Diana Trilling

Our fate is matched by the total freedom we have to react to our fate.
It is as if we were dealt a hand of card. Once we have them,
we are free to play them as we choose.

Thomas Sowell

Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think
that these branches would turn green again and blossom,
but we hope it, we know it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Fate! There is no fate. Between the thought and the success God is the
only agent. Fate is not the ruler, but the servant of Providence.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

We are the makers of our own lives. There is no such thing as fate.
Our lives are the result of our previous actions, our karma, and it
naturally flows that, having been ourselves the makers of our karma,
we must also be able to unmake it.

Vivekananda

No matter the barbs of fate that frustrate you, no matter how stacked
against you the cards of fortune. . . . There is a liberating law in the universe,
and you can become the highest of the high, wisest of the wise.

U.S. Anderson

Fate is the friend of the good, the guide of the wise,
the tyrant of the foolish, the enemy of the bad.

William R. Alger

A strong belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand,
there is a comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.

Epicurus

The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating
to meet and greet unknown fate.

O. Henry

How a person masters his or her fate is
more important than what that fate is.

Wilhelm von Humboldt