We are what we must
And not what we would be. I know that one hour Assures not another. The will and the power Are diverse. </poem>
Unseen hands delay
The coming of what oft seems close in ken,
And, contrary, the moment, when we say
"'Twill never come!" comes on us even then.
They only fall, that strive to move,
Or lose, that care to keep.
The irrevocable Hand
That opes the year's fair gate, doth ope and shut
The portals of our earthly destinies;
We walk through blindfold, and the noiseless doors
Close after us, forever.
Every man meets his Waterloo at last.
Wendell Pottt.tpb—Speech. Nov. 1, 1859.
Ich fuhl 's das ich der Mann des Schicksals bin.
I feel that I am a man of destiny.
Truly some men there be
That live always in great horrour,
And say it goeth by destiny
To hang or wed: both hath one hour;
And whether it be, I am well sure,
Hanging is better of the twain;
Sooner done, and shorter pain.
The School-house. Pub. about 1542.
What a falling-off was there!
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 47.
A man may fish with the worm that hath
eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed
of that worm.
Hamlet. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 28.
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away :
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!
Hamlet. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 234.
| seealso = (See also Tennyson)
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.
Hamlet. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 315.
We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.
Henry IV. Pt. II. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 194.
Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies,
Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light.
Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 6. L. 1.
Think you I bear the shears of destiny?
Have 1 commandment on the pulse of life?
King John. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 91.
For it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Macbeth. Actll. Sc. 1. L. 63.
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 117.
Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward
To what they were before.
Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 24.
If he had been as you and you as he,
You would have slipt like him.
A man whom both the waters and the wind,
In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball
For them to play upon.
Pericles. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 63.
They that stand high have many blasts to shake
them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.
Richard III. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 259.
What is done cannot be now amended.
Richard III. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 291.
But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail!
("Direct my suit" in folio and quarto of
.)
| topic = Destiny | page =
}}
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.
Shelley—Song. To Men of England.
And all the bustle of departure—sometimes
sad, sometimes intoxicating—just as fear or
hope may be inspired by the new chances of
coming destiny.
Madame de Staël—Corinne.
| place = Bk. X. Ch. VI.
And from his ashes may be made
The violet of his native land.
| author = Tennyson
| work = InMemoriam. XVIII. St. 1.
| seealso = (See also Hamlet)
| topic = Destiny
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident,
It is the very place God meant for thee;
And should'st thou there small room for action
see,
JDo not for this give room for discontent.
Archbishop Trench—Sonnet.
Quisque suos patimur manes.
We bear each one our own destiny.
Vergil—Æneid. VI. 743.
