The Quotes canon

Sourced and curated.

Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
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 · 1595
Homer2 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 BC
It is very strange that I, a boy brought up in the woods, and seeing, as it were, but little of the world, should be drifted into the very apex of this great event. — Abraham Lincoln · 1864
Amy Tan1 quote
Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. — Amy Tan · 1989
Just so you know, judging from my little experience last night, I do think there is such a thing as fate. It just works in really fucked up ways sometimes. — Denise Fleming · 1998
Euripides1 quote
Be happy, drink, think each day your own as you live it and leave the rest to fortune. — Euripides · 438 BC
I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floatin’ around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both get happening at the same time. — Forrest Gump · 1994
Our destiny rules over us, even when we are not yet aware of it; it is the future that makes laws for our to-day. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1878
Heraclitus1 quote
War is father of all and king of all. Some he reveals as gods, other as men; some he makes slaves, other free. — Heraclitus
By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. — Herman Melville · 1851
Horace1 quote
Do not try to find out-we're forbidden to know-what end the gods may bestow on me or you. — Horace · 23 BC
John Lewis1 quote
We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us. — John Lewis · 2006
Whatever 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 · 180
Menander1 quote
Whom the gods love dies young. — Menander · 290 BC
Novalis1 quote
I often feel, and ever more deeply I realize, that Fate and character are the same conception. — Novalis · 1802
Do your duty, and leave the outcome to the Gods. — Pierre Corneille · 1640
People have already had to rethink so many concepts of motion, and they will also gradually come to realize that what we call fate does not come into us from the outside, but emerges from us. — Rainer Maria Rilke · 1929
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
I never forgot. Not for one moment. I knew I'd find you in the end. It's our destiny. — Youngest Jamal · 2008