Fate has long fascinated humanity, inspiring countless reflections on destiny, choice, and the paths our lives take. Whether viewed as a guiding force or a challenge to overcome, fate continues to spark deep thought and meaningful conversation. In this collection, we explore 68 of the most famous and thought-provoking quotes about fate, offering insights that resonate across time and cultures. Dive in to discover perspectives that may shape the way you see your own journey.
1. “Oh, I am fortune's fool!” - William Shakespeare
2. “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.” - Robert Burns
3. “Nico was wrong. The Book of Fate isn't already written. It's written every day.Some scars never heal.Then again, some do.” - Brad Meltzer
4. “Lee was too cool by nature to rage at fate; his manner was to raise an eyebrow and greet it laconically.” - Philip Pullman
5. “It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” - William Ernest Henley
6. “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart.” - Marcus Aurelius
7. “Chance. It weaves through our lives like a golden thread, sometimes knotting, tangling, and breaking along the way. Loose threads are left hanging, but the in and out, the back and forth continues, the weaving goes on. It doesn't stop.” - Mary E. Pearson
8. “Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been fate. People are always a little confused about this, as they are in the case of miracles. When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course if someone is killed by a freak chain of events -- the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken just there -- that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous.” - Terry Pratchett
9. “Where we choose to be, where we choose to be--we have the power to determine that in our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being.” - Sena Jeter Naslund
10. “The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.” - P.S. Baber
11. “He stares at me so darkly, so hungily that I can only nod. Agree. Of course, I feel it. "I do", I admit.” - Sophie Jordan
12. “Surely if we knew what bitterness fate held in store, we would shrink back in fear and let the cup of life pass us by untasted.” - Jacqueline Carey
13. “It seemed as if some subtle current of recognition had passed between them... not as if they had met before... but as if they had come close several times until finally an impatient Fate had forced their paths to intersect.” - Lisa Kleypas
14. “We can't choose our fate, but we can choose others. Be careful in knowing that.” - J.K. Rowling
15. “I was recalling that other world in which it had thrilled me, in a way, the surprise of thinking that I could be a person who would betray Daniel. Now I wondered if Daniel could surprise himself, could surprise me, by being such a person too. Would he let himself do such a thing? I didn’t think so. And then I wondered: Is it by will, then, that we are who we are? Do we decide, do we make ourselves, after a certain point in life?I tried to call up the moment when I had decided I could be such a person. It seemed to me I hadn’t quite got there, not really. That I was still just playing with the idea of it when the ground shifted under me. But perhaps to play with such an idea was already to be a certain kind of person.” - Sue Miller
16. “A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it.” - Ursula K. Le Guin
17. “I think of how life takes unexpected twists and turns, sometimes through sheer happenstance, sometimes through calculated decisions. In the end, it can all be called fate, but to me, it is more a matter of faith.” - Emily Giffin
18. “I can't do nothing. Just put it off. And that don't do no good. I reckon it belong to me. I reckon what I going to get ain't no more than mine.” - William Faulkner
19. “We are not called to fight the battles of our fathers with a blind faith. We are called to examine their wars, and moreover, to discern whether their actions were sinful or just. Furthermore, we are called to decide whether to correct the errors of our fathers battles through either peace, war, or some combination of the two. We are not bonded to our fathers' fate, but rather called to build on their trespasses or triumphs for a better future.” - Cristina Marrero
20. “But Fate does iron wedges drive,And always crowds itself betwixt.” - Andrew Marvell
21. “The ancients believed in Fate because they recognized how hard it is for anyone to change anything. The pull of past and future is so strong that the present is crushed by it. We lie helpless in the force of patterns inherited and patterns re-enacted by our own behavior. The burden is intolerable.” - Jeanette Winterson
22. “You have perhaps heard some false reportsOn the subject of God. He is not dead; and he is not a fable. He is not mocked nor forgotten--Successfully. God is a lion that comes in the night. God is a hawk gliding among the stars--If all the stars and the earth, and the living flesh of the night that flows in between them, and whatever is beyond themWere that one bird. He has a bloody beak and harsh talons, he pounces and tears--And where is the German Reich? There alsoWill be prodigious America and world-owning China. I say that all hopes and empires will die like yours;Mankind will die, there will be no more fools; wisdom will die; the very stars will die;One fierce life lasts.” - Robinson Jeffers
23. “One wouldn't wish to tempt fate” - Jude Morgan
24. “We as human beings appear to be in the most adverse stages in our evolution. How can the Mother Earth survive when the souls of Her sons are tainted with avarice, and the very minds which shape Her fate are dominated by ego? Minds that are prone to paranoia and can no longer trust its brothers. Humanity is at a crossroads. A crossroads which speaks of either profound change or ultimate destruction.” - Chris Cordova
25. “You weren't being punished. You were waiting for me.” - Jean M. Auel
26. “How incredibly far our lives drift from where we knew with all certainty they would go. How little today resembles what yesterday thought it would look like.” - Jim Beaver
27. “One knows so little. When one knows more it is too late.” - Agatha Christie
28. “Whatever is, is in its causes just;But purblind manSees but a part o' th' chain; the nearest link;His eyes not carrying to that equal beamThat poises all above.” - John Dryden
29. “I use this as a paradigm for our whole attitude toward life, what you did was you worked very hard, you try to understand and try to direct these complicated, powerful forces and at the very end of the struggle you've made no progress at all. That upon discovering that, you've raised to a lofty moral height, and you've accepted your fate, and somehow went on.” - Philip K. Dick
30. “And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn’t enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I’ve never been able to kill myself.” - Louis-Ferdinand Celine
31. “But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.” - Mikhail Bulgakov
32. “I don't believe the idea of Fate is that everything in our lives is predetermined. For me, it's those moments when, on reflection, Life seems to have intervened and given us a friendly or not-so-friendly nudge in another direction.” - Thea Euryphaessa
33. “Niall: We're tossed by the winds of fate. Once we end where they blow us, we make of ourselves that we will.” - Nora Roberts
34. “After a thousand years pass, it builds its own funeral pyre, lining it with cinnamon, myrrh and cassia. Climbing to a rest on the very top, it examines the world all throughout the night with the ability to see true good and evil. When the sun rises the next morning, with great sorrow for all that it sees, it sings a haunting song. As it sings, the heat of the sun ignites the expensive spices and the Phoenix dies in the flames.But the Phoenix is not remarkable for its feathers or flames. It is most revered for its ability to climb from its own funeral pyre, from the very ashes of its old charred body, as a brand new life ready to live again once more. Life after life, it goes through this cycle. It absorbs human sorrow, only to rise from death to do it all again. It never wearies, it never tires. It never questions its fate. Some say that the Phoenix is real, that it exists somewhere out there in the mountains of Arabia, elusive and mysterious. Others say that the Phoenix is only a wish made by desperate humans to believe in the continuance of life.But I know a secret.We are the Phoenix.” - Courtney Cole
35. “Just let your hand drop; and let fate decide for you.” - Chuck Palahniuk
36. “He is where he is supposed to be. And yet the place he has found is also of his own choosing. That is a piece of luck not to be despised.” - Cormac McCarthy
37. “There is no such thing as destiny. We ourselves shape our lives.” - Casanova
38. “It's not my fate to give up--I know it can't be.” - Henry James
39. “To lead a blameless life you must curb your passions , and whatever misfortune may befall you cannot be ascribed by anyone to want of good luck, or attributed to fate; these words are devoid of sense, and all fault will rightly fall on your own head.” - Casanova
40. “Dreams are what guide us, art is what defines us, math is what makes it all possible, and love is what lights our way.” - Mike Norton
41. “The lines of fate on my hand, once so bright, faded into echo.The memory of his face in my dreams, once so luminous passed into shadow.” - Farrah Naseem
42. “Luck's the word those with poor hearts use for ka...” - Stephen King
43. “You know what I was thinking about on my way home? How different my life would be if you’d made that gash a little deeper. Or how different yours would be if I’d vaulted myself off a roof nine years ago. Do you ever think about things like that? Like, if either you or I wouldn’t have made it, where would the other one be right now? It was something I thought about all the time: how death changes every remaining moment for those still living.” - Tiffanie DeBartolo
44. “Fate, no doubt, had a hand in it.” - Arlene J. Chai
45. “I too saw the wooden horse blocking the stars.” - Derek Walcott
46. “l'inégalité majeure entre les humains, celle qui les sépare de la manière la plus irrémédiable, celle à laquelle le progrès, l'Histoire, la bonne volonté des uns ou des autres, ne peuvent, pour l'heure, à peu près rien, ce n'est ni la fortune, ni le savoir, ni le pouvoir, ni le savoir-pouvoir, ni aucune des autres grâces que dispensent la nature ou le monde, mais cet autre partage qui, dans les situations de détresse extrême, distingue ceux qui ont la chance de pouvoir s'en aller et ceux qui savent qu'ils vont rester. Les alliés des damnés d'un côté ; les amis du Job moderne ; les compagnons d'un jour ou de quelques jours ; les infiltrés ; les mercenaires du Bien ; tous ces bienheureux qui, quelque part qu'ils prennent à la souffrance des autres, quelque ardeur qu'ils mettent à militer, sympathiser, se faire les porte-voix des sans-voix, aller sur le terrain, crapahuter, les suivre dans leurs tranchées, sous leurs bombes, le font tout en sachant qu'il y a cette petite différence qui change tout : ils partiront, eux, quand ils voudront... (ch. 15Arendt, Sarajevo : qu'est-ce qu'être damné ?)” - Bernard-Henri Levy
47. “She had never believed in fate. She still did not. It would be nonsense of freedom of will and choice, and it was through such freedom that we worked our way through life and learned what we needed to learn. But sometimes, it seemed to her, there was something, some sign, to nudge one along in a certain direction. What one chose to do with that nudge was up to that person.” - Mary Balogh
48. “Fate Decides your future if you don't intervene.” - Steven Redhead
49. “She had to go on this quest. The fate of the world might depend on it. But part of him wanted to say: Forget the world. He didn’t want to be without her.” - Rick Riordan
50. “If I'd been a cowboy, it might've ended well.Somewhere on the ramble, I'm sure I'd have to sellMy guns along the highway. My coins to the table To make a gambler's double, I'd double debts to pay.Prob'ly shrink and slink away, It mightn't've ended well.What If I'd been a sailor? I think it might've ended well.From August to MayFor a searat of man drifting through eternal blue, aboard the finest Debris.I might've called the shanties. From daybreak to storm's set, lines stay Taught, over rhythm unbroken.But, oh, there's a schism unspoken, a mighty calling of the lee.An absentminded Pirate, unaccustomed to the sea;To the land, a traitor. I think it mightn't've ended well. What might've worked for me? What might've ended well?Soldier, to bloody sally forth through hell?Teacher of glorious stories to tell?Man of gold, or stores to sell?Lover to a gentle belle? Maybe a camel;A seashell.What mightn't've been a life where it mightn't've ended well?” - Dylan Thomas McCall
51. “Well, this is the hardest part to believe; look, you can suspend me if you want to, but it's the God's honest truth. This man Tompkins came all the way down to where I was bending over the body at the foot of the stairs. I straightened up and covered him with my gun. It didn't faze him in the least, he kept moving right on past me toward the street-door. Not quickly, either; as slowly as if he was just going out for a walk. He said, 'It isn't my time yet. You can't do anything to me with that.' ("Speak To Me Of Death")” - Cornell Woolrich
52. “She was darkness and he was darkness and there had never been anything before this time, only darkness and his lips upon her. She tried to speak and his mouth was over hers again. Suddenly she had a wild thrill such as she had never known; joy, fear, madness, excitement, surrender to arms that were too strong, lips too bruising, fate that moved too fast.” - Margaret Mitchell
53. “A sharp and familiar pang pierced his heart, rattled around his ribs, and then settled in his stomach like a rotting, dead weight. He took a swig of his Jack on the rocks, the burn not quite dulling the ache that had haunted him for two decades. God, he missed Anna. Enforcer's Redemption” - Carrie Ann Ryan
54. “What is life if you don't have a dream to chase?” - Joanne McClean
55. “Cold comradeship do stars provide.They light the closer, inner sideOf night's vast weight, which, chill and clear,Pulls on us like some puppeteer.Its unseen threads to heads and heartsAttached, it acts us through our parts,From birth's first cry to bent old age,Upon our distant, tiny stage.” - McKenzie Bodkin
56. “I understood that fate could not be eluded forever; it came on leathery wings, swooping through the darkness like the bats in the orchards.” - Alice Hoffman
57. “The trigger has been squeezed, the deathly mechanism has been enabled, the fatal course of a bullet has been set. No amount of bleating or praying or wailing of cajoling can halt it or stall it or call it back.” - Nicola Barker
58. “A thousand years from now nobody is going to know that you or I ever lived. The cynic is right, but lazy. He says ‘You live, you die and nothing you do will ever make a difference.’ But as long as I live, I’m going to be like Beethoven and shake my fist at fate and try to do something for those who live here now and who knows how far into the future that will go. If I accomplish nothing more than making my arm sore, at least I will be satisfied that I have lived.” - Jackson Burnett
59. “You cannot force things apart that are bound at the heart.” - Ashly Lorenzana
60. “The Future is as avoidable as the past is alterable, for the latter is, after all, a consequence of the former: A combination of choice and fate.” - K.C. King
61. “Don't let circumstances determine your fate. Choose your fate and mold circumstances to fit your fate of choice.” - D.B. Harrop
62. “Fate has carried me'Mid the thick arrows: I will keep my stand--Not shrink and let the shaft pass by my breastTo pierce another.” - George Eliot
63. “كل منا مهندس أقداره الخاصة، بدرجة ما، على الأقل” - Ivan Klíma
64. “Most things happen for a reason and it may take years to discover why, but this is almost always for the better.” - Ursula A. Ciller
65. “I see it in your eyes as I see it in hers. Remember, there is always light where there is love and if that is what is meant to happen between the two of you, then it was destined.” - L.G. Castillo
66. “Anna Petrovna: I am beginning to think, doctor, that fate has cheated me. The majority of people, who maybe are no better than I am, are happy and pay nothing for that happiness. I have paid for everything, absolutely everything! And how dearly! Why have I paid such terrible interest?” - Anton Chekhov
67. “Maybe fate's arithmetic is so diffuse that it's not arithmetic at all.” - David Levithan
68. “The fates lead her who will; who won't they drag.” - Tom Spanbauer
