# Quote — José Saramago, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

> Fate [is] the supreme order to which even gods are subject. And what of men, what is their function. To challenge order, to change fate. For the better. For better or for worse, it makes no difference, the point is to keep fate from being fate.

- Author: [José Saramago](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago.md)
- Book: [The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis.md)
- Page: 288
- Original (pt): O destino é a ordem suprema, a que os próprios deuses aspiram, E os homens, que papel vem a ser o dos homens, Perturbar a ordem, corrigir o destino, Para melhor, Para melhor ou para pior, tanto faz, o que é preciso é impedir que o destino seja destino.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago#The_Year_of_the_Death_of_Ricardo_Reis_(1993)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis/fate-is-the

## More from this book

> To hope, Hope in what, Hope, just hope, one reaches a point where there is nothing but hope, and that is when we discover that hope is everything.

p. 108 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis/to-hope-hope.md)

> A man must read widely, a little of everything or whatever he can, but given the shortness of life and the verbosity of the world, not too much should be demanded of him. Let him begin with those titles no one should omit, commonly referred to as books for learning, as if not all books were for learning, and this list will vary according to the fount of knowledge one drinks from and the authority that monitors its flow.

p. 117 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis/a-man-must.md)

> Perhaps it is the language that chooses the writers it needs, making use of them so that each might express a tiny part of what it is.

p. 47 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis/perhaps-it-is-the.md)