Fatalism Quotes
Quotes tagged as "fatalism"
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“The train is roaring toward you and the villain is twirling his moustache and you're fussing that he's tied you to the tracks with the wrong kind of rope.”
― Sunshine
― Sunshine

“[T]his readiness to assume the guilt for the threats to our environment is deceptively reassuring: We like to be guilty since, if we are guilty, it all depends on us. We pull the strings of the catastrophe, so we can also save ourselves simply by changing our lives. What is really hard for us (at least in the West) to accept is that we are reduced to the role of a passive observer who sits and watches what our fate will be. To avoid this impotence, we engage in frantic, obsessive activities. We recycle old paper, we buy organic food, we install long-lasting light bulbs鈥攚hatever鈥攋ust so we can be sure that we are doing something. We make our individual contribution like the soccer fan who supports his team in front of a TV screen at home, shouting and jumping from his seat, in the belief that this will somehow influence the game's outcome.”
―
―

“From Orient Point
The art of living isn't hard to muster:
Enjoy the hour, not what it might portend.
When someone makes you promises, don't trust her
unless they're in the here and now, and just her
willing largesse free-handed to a friend.
The art of living isn't hard to muster:
groom the old dog, her coat gets back its luster;
take brisk walks so you're hungry at the end.
When someone makes you promises, don't trust her
to know she can afford what they will cost her
to keep until they're kept. Till then, pretend
the art of living isn't hard to muster.
Cooking, eating and drinking are a cluster
of pleasures. Next time, don't go round the bend
when someone makes you promises. Don't trust her
past where you'd trust yourself, and don't adjust her
words to mean more to you than she'd intend.
The art of living isn't hard to muster.
You never had her, so you haven't lost her
like spare house keys. Whatever she opens,
when someone makes you promises, don't. Trust your
art; go on living: that's not hard to muster.”
―
The art of living isn't hard to muster:
Enjoy the hour, not what it might portend.
When someone makes you promises, don't trust her
unless they're in the here and now, and just her
willing largesse free-handed to a friend.
The art of living isn't hard to muster:
groom the old dog, her coat gets back its luster;
take brisk walks so you're hungry at the end.
When someone makes you promises, don't trust her
to know she can afford what they will cost her
to keep until they're kept. Till then, pretend
the art of living isn't hard to muster.
Cooking, eating and drinking are a cluster
of pleasures. Next time, don't go round the bend
when someone makes you promises. Don't trust her
past where you'd trust yourself, and don't adjust her
words to mean more to you than she'd intend.
The art of living isn't hard to muster.
You never had her, so you haven't lost her
like spare house keys. Whatever she opens,
when someone makes you promises, don't. Trust your
art; go on living: that's not hard to muster.”
―

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was not convincing the world that he didn鈥檛 exist; the greatest trick he ever pulled was making us believe we have free will.”
― The Meaninglessness of Meaning
― The Meaninglessness of Meaning
“You can鈥檛 change the past. You can鈥檛 even change the future, in the sense that you can only change the present one moment at a time, stubbornly, until the future unwinds itself into the stories of our lives.”
―
―

“Seriously, what is the source of our thoughts? How do artists create art? How do writers write? What is it that is doing the creating?”
― The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit
― The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit

“Was die Menschen t盲glich ihre Entscheidungen nennen, ist nichts weiter als ein gut einstudiertes Spiel.”
― Spieltrieb
― Spieltrieb
“Submission, when it is submission to the truth 鈥� and when the truth is known to be both beautiful and merciful 鈥� has nothing in common with fatalism or stoicism as these terms are understood in the Western tradition, because its motivation is different. According to Fakhr ad-Din ar-RazT, one of the great commentators upon the Quran: The worship of the eyes is
weeping, the worship of the ears is listening, the worship of the tongue is praise, the worship of the hands is giving, the worship of the body is effort, the worship of the heart is fear and hope, and the worship of the spirit is surrender and satisfaction in Allah.”
―
weeping, the worship of the ears is listening, the worship of the tongue is praise, the worship of the hands is giving, the worship of the body is effort, the worship of the heart is fear and hope, and the worship of the spirit is surrender and satisfaction in Allah.”
―

“We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational events (that is to say, events the reasonableness of which we do not understand).”
― War and Peace
― War and Peace

“La verdad, es que en el fondo soy un fatalista. Si a uno le llega la hora, da lo mismo un Boeing que la puntual maceta que se derrumba sobre uno desde un s茅ptimo piso”
― La muerte y otras sorpresas
― La muerte y otras sorpresas

“Let us eat and drink neither forgetting death unduly nor remembering it. The Lord hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, etc., and the less we think about it the better.”
―
―

“There is one universally incorrect choice: do nothing. This didn't work when humans thought that plagues were a punishment sent by angry gods. Nor does a laissez-faire approach help stop disease when it is a deliberate policy choice.”
― Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues
― Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

“One of the most agonizing problems of human experience is how to deal with disappointment. In our individual lives we all too often distill our frustrations into an essence of bitterness, or drown ourselves in the deep waters of self-pity, or adopt a fatalistic philosophy that whatever happens must happen and all events are determined by necessity. These reactions poison the soul and scar the personality, always harming the person who harbors them more than anyone else. The only healthy answer lies in one鈥檚 honest recognition of disappointment even as he still clings to hope, one鈥檚 acceptance of finite disappointment even while clinging to infinite hope.”
― Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
― Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

“In none of her lives will she be brilliant or famous or content. Her mediocrity will hound her through a kaleidoscope of futures.”
― Animal Wife
― Animal Wife

“De modo que cuando deseaba que me arrollase un tren lo hac铆a bastante en serio”
― Breakfast At Tiffany's
― Breakfast At Tiffany's

“It seemed to him that in this world probably it was the fate of everybody at some time to have his head cut off.”
― The True Story of Ah Q
― The True Story of Ah Q

“But man will never be gone," she said, with insidious, diabolical knowledge of the horrors of persistence. "The world will go with him.”
― Women in Love
― Women in Love

“Besides, life was not precious, for what was the body after all, but carrion, and the sojourn on earth but a halt on the way to eternal life?”
― A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
― A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“Death for a noble cause, I understand, but...death for its own sake? Death as the...as the noble cause? That's not a good answer, either. It's not as bad as theirs, not as bad as those who are marching against you out there, but that...the fact that it's the worst answer doesn't make it a good answer. Isn't...isn't worshiping the inevitability of death just, like, just another bullshit way of trying to have the illusion of control over it?”
― Monsters in a Mirror: Strange Tales from the Chapel Perilous
― Monsters in a Mirror: Strange Tales from the Chapel Perilous

“To know the place of his grave from early childhood has an effect on a man. To place flowers on the ground where he himself will one day lie makes him fatalistic, pessimistic. Ambition and ideas for life atrophy - after all, what is the point? Life鈥檚 point, on this island, was always clearly visible, up there on the hillside.”
― The Messenger of Athens
― The Messenger of Athens
“There's no spring in his step. No smile on his face. There's just a grim determination, grown strong over the years due to the weight of its burden.”
―
―

“It's politics. You are angry with politics. I understand that. Truly, I do. As powerful as I am, where I come from I am considered a third-tier being. The lords and the royals鈥攕ome of whom know nothing of the horrors and hardships of war鈥攔eign over me. It angers me to no end, and yet I continue. I follow. I do what I must. I do what I have to. I follow the path laid out in front of me. I do my duty.鈥�
鈥淭hen how are you any different from the slaves?鈥�
鈥淲e are all slaves, whether we want to accept it or not. It's finding higher meaning in the process of servitude where we find relief.”
― The Destroyer of Worlds: An Answer to Every Question
鈥淭hen how are you any different from the slaves?鈥�
鈥淲e are all slaves, whether we want to accept it or not. It's finding higher meaning in the process of servitude where we find relief.”
― The Destroyer of Worlds: An Answer to Every Question

“Maybe I put it wrong, I'm not a philosopher. To me it means something simple, like to say the future is already there, waiting for you. Why not wait, see what it brings?”
― Swing Time
― Swing Time

“Peopleare sometimes largely powerless, politically, or even psychologically (because we are not flexible, but are indeed brainwashed, or in the grip of strange obsessions that we cannot shake). When we are powerless, fatalism may be a natural frame of mind into which to relapse. If our best efforts come to nothing often enough, we need consolation, and thoughts of unfolding, infinite destiny, or karma, are sometimes consoling.”
― Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy
― Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

“What's wrong with China?" Dr. Frene demanded of me almost immediately, after Nym introduced us. "Why were the Chinese able to invent everything and develop nothing? Why did Chinese civilization undergo a menopause? What happened to China's creative power?"
"Maybe China atrophied because of lack of competition," I suggested weakly.
"Nonsense!" he screamed mildly. "China is a case of stability achieved at the expense of stifling the individual. The society lives but the creative personality dies. Taoistic passivism and fatalism on the one hand, bastard-Confucianism on the other: ancestor-worship, adoration of the male offspring, worship of the phallus! Regimentation of the mind by the classics on the one hand, dissipation of sense power and early and constant cohabitation on the other hand. The mind becomes a perfect mechanical instrument but remains a blank because the senses are dead which should serve and simulate it!”
― Journey to the Beginning
"Maybe China atrophied because of lack of competition," I suggested weakly.
"Nonsense!" he screamed mildly. "China is a case of stability achieved at the expense of stifling the individual. The society lives but the creative personality dies. Taoistic passivism and fatalism on the one hand, bastard-Confucianism on the other: ancestor-worship, adoration of the male offspring, worship of the phallus! Regimentation of the mind by the classics on the one hand, dissipation of sense power and early and constant cohabitation on the other hand. The mind becomes a perfect mechanical instrument but remains a blank because the senses are dead which should serve and simulate it!”
― Journey to the Beginning
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