The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Classical antiquity7 quotes
Zeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment. — Homer · 700 BCAnd fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you-it’s born with us the day that we are born. — Homer · 700 BCWhatever befalls you was prepared for you beforehand from eternity, and the thread of causes was spinning from everlasting both your existence and this which befalls you. — Marcus Aurelius · 180War is father of all and king of all. Some he reveals as gods, other as men; some he makes slaves, other free. — HeraclitusWhom the gods love dies young. — Menander · 290 BCBe happy, drink, think each day your own as you live it and leave the rest to fortune. — Euripides · 438 BCAll 7 quotes →The Renaissance6 quotes
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings. — William Shakespeare · 1599Time’s the king of men.
He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven. — William Shakespeare · 1616There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will. — William Shakespeare · 1616Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. — William Shakespeare · 1616What Fates impose, that men must needs abide;
It boots not to resist both wind and tide. — William Shakespeare · 1595Age of Enlightenment1 quote
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men,
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief and pain,
For promis'd joy. — Robert Burns · 1785