Careful Words

Fates (?.)

  The young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies and such odd sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches of learning, is indeed deceased; or, as you would say in plain terms, gone to heaven.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about

To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act i. Sc. 2.

Jove lifts the golden balances that show

The fates of mortal men, and things below.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book xxii. Line 271.

Our wills and fates do so contrary run

That our devices still are overthrown.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.