Success, the mark no mortal wit,
Or surest hand, can always hit:
For whatsoe'er we perpetrate,
We do but row, we're steered by Fate,
Which in success oft disinherits,
For spurious causes, noblest merits,
_Hudibras, Pt. I. Canto I_. S. BUTLER.
Fate holds the strings, and men like children move
But as they're led: success is from above.
_Heroic Love, Act v. Sc. 1_. LORD LANSDOWNE.
Fate steals along with silent tread,
Found oftenest in what least we dread;
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the sunshine strikes the blow.
_A Fable: Moral_. W. COWPER.
With equal pace, impartial Fate
Knocks at the palace, as the cottage gate.
_Bk. I. Ode IV_. HORACE. _Trans. of_ PH. FRANCIS.
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
_Hamlet, Act iii. Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
What fates impose, that men must needs abide;
It boots not to resist both wind and tide.
_King Henry VI., Pt. IV. Act iv. Sc_. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,
_Essay on Man, Epistle I_. A. POPE.
Let those deplore their doom,
Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn:
But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb,
Can smile at Fate, and wonder how they mourn.
_The Minstrel, Bk. I_. J. BEATTIE.
No living man can send me to the shades
Before my time; no man of woman born,
Coward or brave, can shun his destiny.
_The Iliad, Bk. VI_. HOMER. _Trans. of_ BRYANT.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to Heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.
_All's Well that Ends Well, Act i. Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
I'll make assurance doubly sure,
And take a bond of Fate.
_Macbeth, Act iv. Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
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.
_Julius Caesar, Act i. Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Man is his own star, and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate.
Nothing to him falls early, or too late.
_Upon an Honest Man's Fortune_. J. FLETCHER.
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.
_Hamlet, Act v. Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.