Otto Weininger Quotes

We like to believe we are in control of our destinies, even though we never are and we never have been.

I don't go through life thinking I'm on a conveyer belt I can't jump off, but sometimes it's helpful to think that things are out of your control.

No power or virtue of man could ever have deserved that what has been fated should not have taken place.

What must be shall be; and that which is a necessity to him that struggles, is little more than choice to him that is willing.

How shall a man escape from that which is written; How shall he flee from his destiny?

Destiny is the invention of the cowardly, and the resigned.

That's life. Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.

I always believe whatever is written in your fate will happen.

It's better to accept destiny.

The Fates guide those who will and drag those who won't!

Fate and necessity are unconquerable.

Destiny is an absolutely definite and inexorable ruler. Physical ability and moral determination count for nothing. It is impossible to perform the simplest act when the gods say no. I have no idea how they bring pressure to bear on such occasions; I only know that it is irresistible.

Necessity and chance Approach not me, and what I will is fate.

You speak of destiny as if it was fixed.

If you know that things are bound to happen whatever you do, then you may feel free to give up the fight against them.

Men speak of blind destiny, a thing without scheme or purpose. But what sort of destiny is that? Each act in this world from which there can be no turning back has before it another, and it another yet. In a vast endless net. Men imagine that the choices before them are theirs to make. But we are free to act only upon what is given. Choice is lost in the maze of generations and each act in the maze is itself an enslavement for it voids every alternative and binds one ever more tightly into the constraints that make a life.

I believe in destiny. I believe destiny opens doors for you, but it's up to you to walk through them.

Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.

Often the prudent, far from making their destinies, succumb to them. -Francois

I hate the word "inevitable" because I feel like things don't have to be the way they are.

It's the same with menus and men and just about anything else: we think we're choosing things for ourselves, but in fact we may not be choosing anything. It could be that everthing's being decided in advance and we pretend we're making choices. Free will may be an illusion. I often think that.

Sometimes, what you do you have no control over because it's predestined. It's gonna happen in spite of you. There's nothing you can do about it.

Man is the creature of circumstances.

I believe in taking what happens as inevitable.