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All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.
Arthur C. Clarke
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Human plans are often disrupted by forces beyond our control, such as nature or fate.

This quote by Arthur C. Clarke highlights the unpredictability of life and the limitations of human agency. Despite our best efforts to plan and organize our lives, we must acknowledge that there are greater forces at play that can alter our course unexpectedly, reminding us to remain adaptable and open to change.

Themes

PlansNatureFateUniverseForcesRevision

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be shared during a discussion about unexpected life changes.

More from Arthur C. Clarke

Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our world. Whatsoever life we meet will be as strange and alien as the nightmare creatures of the ocean abyss, or of the insect empire whose horrors are normally hidden from us by their microscopic scale.
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As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
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It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
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The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
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It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
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My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
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