Philosophy & Thought: Free Will & Fate Quotes

Thomas Browne, Scientist

"Catholic theology believes that God gave man free will, and you can't give somebody free will and then send in a play from the sidelines"

Roger Ebert, Critic

"Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck"

Joseph Heller, Novelist

"What men call accident is God's own part"

Philip James Bailey, Poet

"This world is run with far too tight a rein for luck to interfere. Fortune sells her wares; she never gives them. In some form or other, we pay for her favors; or we go empty away"

Amelia Barr, Novelist

"Who can love to walk in the dark? But providence doth often so dispose"

Oliver Cromwell, Soldier

"Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws"

Charles de Secondat, Philosopher

"Under the big political umbrella, a man is just like a leaf in the ocean, with no control of his destiny and does not have any choice"

Zhang Yimou, Director

"How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?"

William Dean Howells, Author

"Let the devil catch you but by a single hair, and you are his forever"

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Critic

"The laws of God, the laws of man, he may keep that will and can; not I: let God and man decree laws for themselves and not for me"

A. E. Housman, Poet

"There are those who dance to the rhythm that is played to them, those who only dance to their own rhythm, and those who don't dance at all"

Jose Bergamin, Writer

"The best of men cannot suspend their fate: The good die early, and the bad die late"

Daniel Defoe, Journalist

"But you don't decide what to do with the info. Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives false info that you are running it, that you are the one who controls thought. Whereas actually thought is the one which controls each one of us"

David Bohm, Scientist

"I don't believe in life after death. But I do believe in some grinding destiny that watches over us on earth. If I didn't, the safety valve would give and the boiler would explode"

Hedy Lamarr, Actress

"I never make conscious decisions"

Anthony Hopkins, Actor

"To bear is to conquer our fate"

Thomas Campbell, Poet

"Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will"

Georg C. Lichtenberg, Scientist

"Some people are very lucky, and have the story in their heads. I've never storyboarded anything. I like the idea of chance. What makes God laugh is people who make plans!"

Nicolas Roeg, Director

"We are exactly where we have chosen to be"

Vernon Howard, Author

"Even though things happen by accident, you also unconsciously choose things that help you"

Nastassja Kinski, Actress

"Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right"

William Feather, Author

"Everything's intentional. It's just filling in the dots"

David Byrne, Musician

"I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime"

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Psychologist

"In all the areas within which the spiritual life of humanity is at work, the historical epoch wherein fate has placed us is an epoch of stupendous happenings"

Edmund Husserl, Philosopher

"Here an attempt is made to explain suffering: the outcaste of traditional Hinduism is held to deserve his fetched fate; it is a punishment for the wrongs he did in a previous life"

Walter Kaufmann, Philosopher

"We make choices, but are constantly foiled by happenstance"

Penelope Lively, Author

"Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts"

Titus Livius, Historian

"But in action, one defies one's character"

Daniel Bell, Sociologist

"Consequently, most of us really exist at the mercy of other people's formulations of what's important"

June Jordan, Writer

"By the time a person has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and the moment has long since passed, which determined the future"

Zelda Fitzgerald, Writer

"I have not much interest in anyone's personal history after the tenth year, not even my own. Whatever one was going to be was all prepared before that"

Katherine Anne Porter, Journalist

"Thirdly, even if we assume that the world is governed by purpose, we need only add that this purpose - or, if there are several, at least one of them - is not especially intent on preventing suffering, whether it is indifferent to suffering or actually rejoices in it"

Walter Kaufmann, Philosopher

"It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of choice and contingency"

Penelope Lively, Author

"We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story"

Mary McCarthy, Author

"I don't believe in coincidence"

Juliette Binoche, Actress

"Random chance plays a huge part in everybody's life"

Gary Gygax, Inventor

"I don't believe in providence and fate, as a technologist, I am used to reckoning with the formulae of probability"

Max Frisch, Novelist

"I've never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didn't choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them!"

Juliette Binoche, Actress

"No one is to blame. It is neither their fault nor ours. It is the misfortune of being born when a whole world is dying"

Alexander Herzen, Journalist

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