Schopenhauer: Shrewd Counsel | Counsels & Maxims 52

What people call "fate" is often their own stupidity and foolishness.
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Section 52 of Counsels and Maxims (1851)
0:00 Shrewd Counsel
0:47 Passage from Iliad
2:32 Stupidity & Cunning
3:22 Comment
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Music: Among the Clouds, by Darren Curtis
Thumbnail Image: 1815 Portrait, By Ludwig Sigismund Ruhl - Schopenhauer-Archiv der Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Schopenhauer Text:
What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct. There is a fine passage in Homer, illustrating the truth of this remark, where the poet praises [GK: maetis]-shrewd counsel; and his advice is worthy of all attention. For if wickedness is atoned for only in another world, stupidity gets its reward here-although, now and then, mercy may be shown to the offender. It is not ferocity but cunning that strikes fear into the heart and forebodes danger; so true it is that the human brain is a more terrible weapon than the lion's paw. The most finished man of the world would be one who was never irresolute and never in a hurry.