The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Believing that fate controls everything without reason is the saddest idea humans can have.
- In plain terms
- Thinking fate is brute and random is the saddest belief.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoid believing in a random, cruel fate.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What controls your life?
- Do you believe in fate?
Another view
Sometimes fate feels random.
More from Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.
Permalink to quote #24 All the thoughts of a turtle are turtles, and of rabbits, rabbits.
Permalink to quote #26 There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love.
Permalink to quote #23
Related quotes
Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate.
Friedrich von SchillerFriedrich von Schiller quote #104 We are what we were at birth, and each trait has remained in conformity with earth's and with heaven's logic: Be the devil's tool, resort to black magic, None …
Marianne MooreMarianne Moore quote #21 And as the smart ship grew In stature, grace, and hue, In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. Alien they seemed to be; No mortal eye could see The in…
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy quote #23