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Fate: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city.— N. P. WILLIS — Necessity for a
Promenade Drive.
The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome.— ADDISON — Cato. Act I. Sc. 1.
So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, "With our own feathers, not by other's hands, Are we now smitten."— ÆSCHYLUS — Fragm. 123. Plumptre's
trans. The bow is bent, the arrow flies, The wingéd shaft of fate.— IRA ALDRIDGE — On William Tell. St. 12.
Yet who shall shut out Fate?— EDWIN ARNOLD — Light of Asia. Bk. III. L. 336.
The heart is its own Fate.— BAILEY — Festus. Sc. Wood and Water.
Sunset. Let those deplore their doom, Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn: But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb, Can smile at Fate, and wonder how they mourn.— BEATTIE — The Minstrel. Bk. I.
Success, the mark no mortal wit, Or surest hand, can always hit : For whatsoe'er we perpetrate, We do but row, we're steer'd by Fate, Which in success oft disinherits, For spurious causes, noblest merits.— BUTLER — Hudibras. Pt. I. Canto I. L. 879.
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.— BYRON — English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. L. 841.
To bear is to conquer our fate.— CAMPBELL — On Visiting a Scene in
Argyleshire. Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what least we dread; Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow.— COWPER — A Fable. Moral.
All human things are subject to decay, And when fate summons, monarchs must obey.— DRYDEN — Mac Flecknoe. L. 1.
For those whom God to ruin has design'd, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.— DRYDEN — Hind and Panther. L. 1,092.
Fate has carried me 'Mid the thick arrows: I will keep my stand.- Not shrink and let the shaft pass by my breast To pierce another.— GEORGE ELIOT — The Spanish Gypsy. Bk. III.
Stern fate and time Will have their victims; and the best die first, Leaving the bad still strong, though past their prime, To curse the hopeless world they ever curs'd, Vaunting vile deeds, and vainest of the worst.— EBENEZER ELLIOTT — The Village Patriarch. Bk. IV. Pt. IV.
One common fate we both must prove; You die with envy, I with love.— GAY — Fable. The Poet and Rose. L. 29.
All is created and goes after order; yet o'er mankind's life time, the precious gift, rules an uncertain fate. g. GOETHE. Each curs'd his fate that thus their project cross'd; How hard their lot who neither won nor lost.— GRAVES — An Incident in High Life.
Yet, ah! why should they know their fate, Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies? Thought would destroy their paradise.— GRAY — On a Distant Prospect of Eton
College. 'Tis writ on Paradise's gate, "Woe to the dupe that yields to Fate!"— HAFIZ
Toil is the lot of all, and bitter woe The fate of many.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. XXI. L. 646.
Bryant's trans. And not a man appears to tell their fate.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. X. L. 308.
Pope's trans.
Jove lifts the golden balances that show The fates of mortal men, and things below.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. XXII. L. 271.
Pope's trans. With equal pace, impartial Fate Knocks at the palace, as the cottage gate— HORACE — Bk. I. Ode IV. L. 17.
Francis' trans: Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?— SAM'L JOHNSON — Vanity of Human Wishes. L. 345.
Fate holds the strings, and Men like children move But as they're led: Success is from above.— LORD LANSDOWNE — Heroic Love. Act V. Sc. 1.
All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme.— LONGFELLOW — The Builders. St. 1.
१. No one is so accursed by fate, No one so utterly desolate, But some heart, though unknown, Responds unto his own.— LONGFELLOW — Endymion. St. 8.
It lies not in our power to love or hate, For will in us is over-rul'd by fate.— MARLOWE — Hero and Leander.
First S. Sestiad. L. 167. And sing to those that hold the vital shears; And turn the adamantine spindle round, On which the fate of gods and men is wound.— MILTON — Arcades.
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 560.
Necessity and chance Approach not me, and what I will is fate.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. VII. L. 72.
A brave man struggling in the storms of fate.— POPE — Prologue to Addison's Cato.
But blind to former as to future fate, What mortal knows his pre-existent state?— POPE — Dunciad. Bk. III. L. 47.
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate. Y.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. I. L. 77.
Fate sits on these dark battlements, and frowns; And as the portals open to receive me, Her voice, in sullen echoes, through the courts, Tells of a nameless deed. "The— ANN RADCLIFFE — The Motto to
Mysteries of Udolpho. But, O vain boast! Who can control his fate?— Shakespeare — Othello. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 264.
But yet I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 83.
Eat, speak, and move, under the influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead the measure such are to be followed. C.— Shakespeare — All's Well That Ends Well. Act II. Sc.1. L. 56.
Fate, show thy force; ourselves we do not owe; What is decreed must be, and be this so.— Shakespeare — Twelfth Night. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 329.
Fates, we will know your pleasures : That we shall die we know; 'tis but the time And drawing days out, that men stand upon. Julius Cæsar. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 98. If thou read this, O Cæsar, thou mayst live; If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive. Julius Cæsar. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 15. It boots not to resist both wind and tide.— Shakespeare — Henry VI. Pt. III. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 59.
My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Numean lion's nerve.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 81.
O God! that one might read the book of fate, And see the revolutions of the times Make mountains level, and the continent Weary of solid firmness, melt itself Into the sea! Sc.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act III. L. 45.
Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 221.
What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide.— Shakespeare — Henry VI. Pt. III. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 58.
What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid within an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 127.
You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of Fate; the elements Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish One dowle that's in my plume.— Shakespeare — Tempest. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 60.
Nulla vis humana vel virtus meruisse unquam potuit, ut, quod præscripsit fatalis ordo, non fiat. No power or virtue of man could ever have deserved that what has been fated should not have taken place. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUs-Historia. XXIII.
Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. Whenever monarchs err, the people are punished.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 2. 14.
Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens Pinus, et celsae graviore casu Decidunt turres feriuntque summos Fulgura montes. The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; high towers fall with a heavier crash; and the lightning strikes the highest mountains.— HORACE — Carmina. II. 10. 9.
In se magna ruunt: lætis hunc numina rebus Crescendi posuere modum. Mighty things haste to destruction: this limit have the gods assigned to human prosperity.— LUCAN — Pharsalia. I. 81.
Sed quo fata trahunt, virtus secura sequetur. Whither the fates lead virtue will follow without fear.— LUCAN — Pharsalia. II. 287.
Nullo fata loco possis excludere. From no place can you exclude the fates.— MARTIAL — Epigrammata. IV. 60. 5.
Geminos, horoscope, varo Producis genio. O natal star, thou producest twins of widely different character.— PERSIUS — Satira. VI. 18.
Sæpe calamitas solatium est nosse sortem suam. It is often a comfort in misfortune to know our own fate.— QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS — De Rebus
Gestis Alexandri Magni. IV. 10. 27. Fata volentem ducunt, nolentem trahunt. The fates lead the willing, and drag the unwilling.— SENECA — Epistolæ Ad Lucilium. CVII.
Multi ad fatum Venere suum dum fata timent. Many have reached their fate while dreading fate.— SENECA — Edipus. 993.
Nemo fit fato nocens. No one becomes guilty by fate.— SENECA — Edipus. 1,019.
Alea jacta est. The die is cast. The exclamation of Cæsar as he crossed the Rubicon. SUETONIUS-Cæsar. Ad restim mihi quidem res rediit planissume. Nothing indeed remains for me but that I should hang myself.— TERENCE — Phormio. IV. 4. 5.
Perge; decet. Forsan miseros meliora sequentur. Persevere: It is fitting, for a better fate awaits the afflicted.— VIRGIL — Æneid. XII. 153.
Quisque suos patimur manes. We bear each one our own destiny. C.— VIRGIL — Eneid. VI. 743.
Quo fata trahunt retrahuntque sequamur. Wherever the fates lead us let us follow.— VIRGIL — Eneid. V. 709.
Die blauen Veilchen der Aeugelein. Those blue violets, her eyes.— HEINE — Lyrisches Intermezzo. XXXI
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh' So schwindet all' mein Leid und Weh. Whene'er into thine eyes I see, All pain and sorrow fly from me.— HEINE — Lyrisches Intermezzo. IV.
Parean l' occhiaje anella senza gemme. Their eyes seem'd rings from whence the gems were gone. *— DANTE — Purgatorio. XXIII. 31
Non é il mondan romore altro che un fiato Di vento, che or vien quinci ed or vien quindi, E muta nome, perchè muta lato. The splendors that belong unto the fame of earth are but a wind, that in the same direction lasts not long.— DANTE — Purgatoria. XI. 100.
On est, quand on veut, maître de son sort. We are, when we will it, masters of our own fate.— FERRIER — Adraste.
Tes destins sont d'un homme, et tes vœux sont d'un dieu. Your destiny is that of a man, and your vows those of a god.— VOLTAIRE — La Liberté.
Blindlings that er blos den Willen des Ge schickes. Man blindly works the will of fate.— WIELAND — Oberon. IV. 59.
Der Mensch erfährt, er sei auch wer er mag, Ein letztes Glück und einen letzten Tag. Man, be he who he may, experiences a last piece of good fortune and a last day.— GOETHE — Sprüche in Reimen. III.
Der Zug des Herzens ist des Schicksals Stimme. The heart's impulse is the voice of fate.— SCHILLER — Piccolomini. III. 8. 82.
Des Schicksals Zwang ist bitter. The compulsion of fate is bitter.— WIELAND — Oberon. V. 60.
Du musst (herrschen und gewinnen Oder dienen und verlieren Leiden oder triumphiren) Amboss oder Hammer sein. Thou must (in commanding and winning, or serving and losing, suffering or triumphing) be either anvil or hammer.— GOETHE — Grosscophta. II.
Mach deine Rechnung mit dem Himmel, Vogt! Fort musst du, deine Uhr ist abgelaufen. Make thine account with Heaven, governor, Thou must away, thy sand is run.— SCHILLER — Wilhelm Tell. IV. 3. 7.
Sperre dich, so viel du willst ! Des Himmels Wege sind des Himmels Wege. Struggle against it as thou wilt, yet Heaven's ways are Heaven's ways.— LESSING — Nathan der Weise. III. 1.
Che l'uomo il suo destin fugge di raro. For rarely man escapes his destiny.— ARIOSTO — Orlando Furioso. XVIII.