Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher Quotes

I can see ... only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen.

The world is so unpredictable. Things happen suddenly, unexpectedly. We want to feel we are in control of our own existence. In some ways we are, in some ways we're not. We are ruled by the forces of chance and coincidence.

We are continually shaped by the forces of coincidence.

My life is a series of things that just happen.

It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of choice and contingency.

A man may plan as much as he wants to, but nothing of consequence is likely to come of it until the magician circumstance steps in and takes the matter off his hands.

Don't be surprised at Fortune's turns and twists: That wheel has spun a thousand yarns before.

Luck has a lot to do with how your life develops.

I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder.

My life is a big accident, so where I end up, I think it's all accidents.

Luck is going to play a huge part in your life.

Chance determines our lives in important ways.

Much of what we do in life has a huge component of luck.

A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance.

Random chance plays a huge part in everybody's life.

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

I say the one thing about luck is you can't really count on it.

The older you get, the more you realise how happenstance... has helped to determine your path through life.

I was born accidentally. I lived accidentally in London. We nearly migrated to New Zealand. So much of my life has been a product of chance, I can't see a meaning in it at all.

For me, everything has always been an accident.

There's a lot of things in life that we don't know why they're coming exactly at this moment.

History throws you what it throws you, and you never know what’s coming.

I think things just happen to people. That's healthier, I feel, than believing there's some grand scheme where your story is already inscribed in the Book of Life. Books get rewritten.

Some of the most important determinants of life paths arise through the most trivial of circumstances.

You have to realize that a lot of life is just fortune and the ebbs of flows of what goes on.