Samuel Beckett Quotes

Nothing can save something that is not meant to be, no matter how hard you try.

There is no beginning to an end / But there is a beginning and an end / To beginning.

I would not despair unless I knew the irrevocable decree was passed; saw my misfortune recorded in the book of fate, and signed and sealed by neces-sity.

What sense is there in continuing when one has seen the future?

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

There is nothing you can do about it but sit back and watch.

I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.

I'm a fatalist.

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.

I don't believe in expending energy on something you can't do anything about. If there was some easy way of fixing things, I'd probably do it.

It's better to accept destiny.

I don't fear death. If it happens, it was meant to happen.

Things happen in the way they usually should. I'm a pretty fatalistic person.

What must be shall be.

I'm not a fatalist; even if I were, what could I do about it?

Fate rules. You follow the steps and you plan and you work. Then fate slips in laughing and makes fools of us. Sometimes we can trick it or out guess it but most often its already written. For some its written in blood. That doesn't mean we stop, but it does mean we can't comfort ourselves with blame. It's easier to take the blame than to admit there was nothing you could do to stop whatever happened.

And were your back as broad as heaven, and your purse full of gold, and did your compassion reach from here to hell itself, there is nothing you can do.

But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted.

What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.

The popular culture says . . . Do what you do, your life is predestined, like the installment plan on your house. There's not much you can do about it. Make your payments, live it, get sick, die, don't make any trouble. It is the Master Charge of destiny. Try to get your high credit rating.

Fight if you wish. Deny what is before you if it comforts you. But nothing you do can change your fate.

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.

The end is built into the beginning.

Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise.

History is only a tiresome repetition of one story.