Alan Watts Quotes

Men are not yet ready to shape their own destinies, to control and direct world events, of which -- instead -- they become the victims.

Circumstances are beyond the control of man; but his conduct is in his own power.

Does our hand show in this?

We create our own destiny.

Choice is destiny's soul mate.

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

Fate is for losers.

The question I'm always asking myself is: are we masters or victims? Do we make history, or does history make us? Do we shape the world, or are we just shaped by it? The question of do we have agency in our lives or whether we are just passive victims of events is, I think, a great question, and one that I have always tried to ask.

And when man faces destiny, destiny ends and man comes into his own.

I have never believed that things happen by themselves.

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind.

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road

We try to separate the world into the stuff we can control and the stuff we can't.

The word 'fate' doesn't really mean much to me in some ways. I think we make our own.

Man needs to choose, not just accept, his destiny.

Why do you complain of your fate when you could so easily change it?

People can't do much about the fate part, but we can certainly do a lot about the man part.

If you do not create your destiny, you will have your fate inflicted upon you.

We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.

How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.

In the end, human history is made up of all our decisions.

When we get to the future, I'll determine the future.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

Human reason needs only to will more strongly than fate, and she is fate.