Quotations About Fate and Destiny

We make our fortunes, and we call them fate. ~ Earl of Beaconsfield

It is fortune, not wisdom, that rules man's life. ~ Cicero

We're face to face with our destiny. And we must meet it with a high and resolute courage, for ours is the life of action, of strenuous performance, of duty. Let us live in the harness of striving mightily. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. ~ William Jennings Bryant

Love nothing but that which comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny. For what could more aptly fit your needs? ~ Marcus Aurelius

Whatever limits us we call Fate. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Certainty generally is illusion and repose is not the destiny of man. ~ Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr.

Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny. ~ Charles Reade

The worst is not always certain but it's very likely. ~ French Proverb

Fate rules the affairs of mankind with no recognizable order. ~ Seneca

A word, a look, an accent, may affect the destiny not only of individuals, but of nations. He is a bold man who calls anything a trifle. ~ Andrew Carnegie

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not something to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. ~ William Jennings Bryan

Each man the architect of his own fate. ~ Appius Claudius

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. ~ G. K. Chesterton

There is a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will. ~ William Shakespeare

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time. ~ Winston Churchill

Let us follow our destiny, ebb and flow. Whatever may happen, we master fortune by accepting it. ~ Virgil

DESTINY, n. A tyrant's authority for crime and fool's excuse for failure. ~ Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else. ~ Yogi Berra

There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. ~ James Russell Lowell

With equal foot (rich friend), impartial Fate
Knocks at the cottage and the palace gate:
Life's span forbids thee to extend thy cares
And stretch thy hopes beyond thy destined years:
Night soon will seize, and you must quickly go
To storied ghosts and Pluto's house below.
~ Horace

To bear is to conquer our fate. ~ Thomas Campbell

The tissue of life to be
We weave with colors all our own,
And in the field of destiny
We reap as we have sown.
~ John G. Whittier

How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is. ~ Wilhelm von Humboldt