Quotes about fate

I have lived

and journeyed through the course assigned by fortune.

And now my Shade will pass, illustrious,

beneath the earth.

I sail for Italy not of my own free will.

Following what is decreed by fate.

It is a mistake to imagine that man can exhaust his destiny, or can reach the bottom of anything whatever. Alas! what are all these destinies thus driven pell-mell? whither go they? why are they so? He who knows that, sees all the shadow. He is alone. His name is God.

If fated, men come together though a thousand li apart. If not, they miss each other though they meet face to face.

Ecstasy begets tragedy, from misery good fortune springs.

The winds and clouds in the sky are unfathomable. A man's luck changes in an instant.

Calamity and happiness have no volition. Man brings them on himself. Go in a flaxen cape to put out a fire and you'll be consumed by flames.

The higher up on Fortune's wheel you see

A wretch ascend, the sooner he will fall,

And where his head is now, his feet will be.

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.

Thus by law of fate all things speed towards the worst, and slipping away fall back.

If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.