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Success, the mark no mortal wit,
Or surest hand, can always hit;
For whatsoe’er we perpetrate,
We do but row—w’are steer’d by fate,
Which in success oft disinherits,
For spurious causes, noblest merits.

— Samuel Butler Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

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Fate

More quotes by Samuel Butler

Love is a boy by poets styl'd;
Then spare the rod and spoil the child.

Part II (1664)

Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat.

Part II (1664)

As men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon 't.

Part III (1678)

For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.

Part III (1678)

Have always been at daggers-drawing,
And one another clapper-clawing.

Part II (1664)

All Samuel Butler quotes →

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One country, one constitution, one destiny.

Daniel Webster

We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.

John Lewis

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.

William Jennings Bryan

“Destiny,” said John. “The ghastliest word a man can speak.”

Poul Anderson The Corridors of Time (1965)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Samuel Butler (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.