Most of the time—ninety-nine percent—you simply don't know how or why the threads are woven, and that's okay. Do good and evil will happen. Do evil, and good will happen. Do nothing and everything will explode.
And only very, very rarely, when, thanks to the miracle of chance and coincidence, the butterflies beat their wings exactly as they should, and all the threads are woven together for a minute, you get a chance to do the right thing.
I could never understand pride in a nation. As for me, pride should relate to something that you yourself have achieved, and not to something that happened by chance. Being Irish is not a skill, it's a fucking accident. You don’t say, “I’m proud to be born on May 16th,” or “I’m proud of my predisposition to colon cancer.” So why the f*** are you proud of being an American, Irish or some other trash?
Many do not see that we live in a web of miracles, connected by silver threads of chance and circumstance. I knew this would happen. And that's where I think we begin to understand the magic. We are born with whirlwinds, fires and comets within us. We are born to sing like birds, read the patterns of clouds and see destiny in a grain of sand, and then, when we dry up our souls, we lose this magic. We distance ourselves from it, scold it, drive it out, and become so correct, rational and responsible. They say behave yourself. And do you know why they say that? Those who say this are afraid of our looseness, because, having given up magic, they feel shame and sadness because they themselves have lost it. Once you go far from her, you won't be able to get her back. Only moments can be realized and remembered.
Introduction - Are you busy here?
- No, sit down.
- I don't want to sit down
I'd rather lie down
there's such spring in your eyes
- I don't believe in accidents
- Shall I hug you tightly?
- Sounds very touching
- I would love you for a long time
- Smells like eternity
- I would like you at night
- What about during the day?
- I have to work a lot during the day
to
your interest in me never faded
In every big business you always have to leave some part to chance.
Napoleon I
Winners don't believe in chance.
Friedrich Nietzsche
A smart person creates more opportunities than he finds.
Francis Bacon
Of course, I believe in luck, otherwise how can I explain the success of people I can’t stand?
Jean Cocteau
The case is God's pseudonym when he does not want to sign his own name.
Anatole France
Opportunity always comes at the most inopportune moment.
"Ducharme's Rule"
A happy occasion needs to be helped if it has already been organized.
"Pshekruj"
Much can happen between the cup of wine and the lips.
Ancient Greek proverb
God himself cannot know what will happen randomly and arbitrarily. For if he knows, then it will definitely happen, and if it definitely happens, it will not happen by chance.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Chance is something that fell out of the hands of fate.
Vladislav Grzeszczyk
Chance is the will of others. Our will is an accident for them.
Krzysztof Konkolewski
Anyone who leaves everything to chance turns his life into a lottery.
Thomas Fuller
No winner believes in chance.
Friedrich Nietzsche
There is nothing random in the universe - this is one of my Laws of Physics - nothing except the universe itself.
Joyce Carol Oates
Nothing contradicts reason and order more than chance.
Cicero Marcus Tullius
The whim of chance rules the world.
Sallust (Gaius Sallust Crispus)
Let us wait, friends, for an hour, while chance is favorable to us.
Horace (Quintus Horace Flaccus)
A missed opportunity is rarely repeated.
Publilius Syrus
It's good for you beauties to mingle with the crowd. Get out of the house more often, even if without a specific purpose! To catch one sheep, the she-wolf chases several. An eagle swoops down on several birds at once. Even if a pretty woman puts herself on display, perhaps out of many she will captivate at least one! She must try to please everywhere and devote all her thoughts to caring about attracting a large number of fans. Chance is decisive everywhere, so you should always have your fishing rod out: fish are caught at depths where you least expect to find them.
Ovid
No one becomes a good person by accident.
Seneca Lucius Annaeus (the Younger)
Quintilian
Everything that is transitory is subject to chance.
Aukan Mark Anney
In military affairs, chance has the greatest power.
Tacitus Publius Cornelius
In a moment something happens that you don’t hope for for years.
Unknown author
No one is responsible for the accident.
Term of law.
Only chance prevents a slanderer from becoming a villain.
Unknown author
It is not to the swift that the race will be successful, nor to the brave the victory, nor to the wise the bread, nor to the wise the wealth, nor to the skillful the favor, but time and chance for all of them.
Old Testament. Ecclesiastes
Happiness is a happy accident.
As-Samarkandi
Anyone who leaves everything to chance turns his life into a lottery.
Thomas Fuller
No matter how much people boast of the greatness of their deeds, the latter are often the result not of great plans, but of simple chance.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
He who does not trust to chance will do little wrong, but he will also do little.
George Saville Halifax
The case is a dice player.
Thomas Fuller
Do you really think that Raphael would not have been the greatest genius of painting if, due to an unfortunate accident, he had been born without arms?
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
The two greatest tyrants on earth: chance and time.
Johann Gottfried Herder
Absurdities are too necessary on earth. The world stands on absurdities, and without them, perhaps nothing at all would have happened in it.
Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
The randomness that pervades reality is precisely what the masses refuse to acknowledge.
Hannah Arendt
They are often quoted on social networks, used as an epigraph at various trainings, and used in the media and books. But similar to the popular expression “behind every great man there is a great woman,” each such statement has its own author, although history does not always preserve his name. After the release of the cult cartoon "Kung Fu Panda", the saying "accidents are not accidental" became very popular. Who said this phrase and who is credited with its authorship, read about it below.
Version one: cartoon "Kung Fu Panda"
If you ask the question who said “coincidences are not accidental,” the overwhelming majority of respondents will answer: one of the characters in the cartoon “Kung Fu Panda,” which was released in 2008. However, in reality, the cartoon only uses a famous saying. Who is the author of the quote “accidents are not accidental”?
Fans of the animated story about the panda warrior not only believe that this phrase was said in the cartoon, but also confuse who said “coincidences are not accidental.” For some reason, many people believe that these words were spoken by Master Shifu, the mentor of the main character, although this is not entirely true. According to the plot of the cartoon, in response to Shifu's words about the appearance of the panda, it was the one who said "coincidences are not accidental." In fact, it appeared much earlier than the cartoon "Kung Fu Panda" was released.
Version two: great European thinkers
At different times, many great people discussed randomness, for example, the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the physicist Albert Einstein, Blaise Pascal, or the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In fact, everyone had their own version of the catchphrase about accidents with a similar meaning, but none of them was the one who said “accidents are not accidents.”
There is also a version that this idea belongs to the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It is already closer to the truth - the proverb was actually born in China. However, Confucius has nothing to do with it; he lived a couple of centuries earlier than the author of the famous saying.
“Accidents are not accidental” - who actually said this phrase?
The remarkable thing about the history is that we cannot recreate events with absolute certainty. We cannot say for sure who said “accidents are not accidental.” Finding the author of this aphorism is complicated by the fact that at different times these words were spoken by many great minds in one form or another. However, historical evidence indicates that the author of the quote “accidents are not accidental” is Zhuang Tzu, the great Chinese thinker who lived in the 4th century BC. And although very little information about this philosopher has been preserved, these are rather subjective sources (memoirs and biographies), and there are practically no reliable materials with data about him, some of Chuang Tzu’s sayings have still survived to our time. This also applies to the question of who said “coincidences are not accidental.” This phrase has a deep meaning, which we will discuss later.
What else is the author of the quote “accidents are not accidental” famous for?
In addition to this aphorism, Zhuang Tzu is the author of many others. These include stories about a master who dreamed that he became a butterfly, as well as a dialogue between Zhuang Tzu and the ruler’s envoys who brought an order to recruit the philosopher to public service. An aphorism that if you steal a hook from a belt, you will be executed, and if you steal a kingdom, you will be crowned. It was first expressed by this Chinese thinker.
Analogues of the famous aphorism
Ideas about randomness appeared when people made their first attempts to understand the nature of ongoing events and their impact on human destiny. It is not surprising that almost every great mind (not only philosophers, but also scientists and artists) of all times and peoples will definitely have a statement about this concept.
There are many aphorisms on the topic of chance. Some authors are famous, while others remain in the shadows. Let us recall the popular expressions about accidents, which are close in meaning to the phrase “accidents are not accidental.”
The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus wrote: “Events whose causes we do not know seem random.” These words reflect basic philosophical concepts: chance and necessity, where chance is considered an unknown necessity.
A similar thought was expressed by one of the greatest French philosophers of the 18th century, Voltaire, saying that a case is usually called any action for which we do not see the root cause or do not understand it.
Franz Kafka had a similar opinion, who called chance only a reflection of the boundaries of knowledge.
The French mathematician Blaise Pascal said that only prepared minds make accidental discoveries.
The famous Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud wrote that nothing is accidental, everything has a root cause.
Leo Tolstoy was sure that there are no coincidences; rather, a person creates his own destiny rather than meeting it.
An aphorism about this philosophical concept, belonging to an unknown mathematician, was heard in the Soviet film “The Most Charming and Attractive”: “Chance is a special case of a pattern.”
Each of the above aphorisms has a similar semantic meaning to the words of the Chinese thinker Zhuang Tzu, so it is not surprising that his statement is also attributed to other philosophers, writers and scientists.
