William Shakespeare on Fate
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“But, O vain boast! Who can control his fate?”
“As the old hermit of Prague … said,… "That that is, is."”
“But yet I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live.”
“Fate, show thy force; ourselves we do not owe; What is decreed must be, and be this so.”
“What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide.”
“If thou read this, O Cæsar, thou mayst live; If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.”
“What should be spoken here, where our fate, Hid within an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?”
“My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Numean lion's nerve.”
“Fates, we will know your pleasures: That we shall die we know; 'tis but the time And drawing days out, that men stand upon.”
“Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.”
“Eat, speak, and move, under the influence of the most received star; and though the devil lead the measure such are to be followed.”
“O God! that one might read the book of fate, And see the revolutions of the times Make mountains level, and the continent Weary of solid firmness, melt itself Into the sea!”
“You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of Fate; the elements Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish One dowle that's in my plume.”