Q0131

Karl Popper

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
Thinker Karl Popper
School Critical Rationalism
Source The Open Society and Its Enemies
Theme Fate
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Open Society and Its Enemies, within the tradition of Critical Rationalism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of fate, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Karl Popper's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Karl Popper. (n.d.). We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0131

MLA: Karl Popper. “We may become the makers of our fate….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0131.

Chicago: Karl Popper. “We may become the makers of our fate….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0131.

Same thinker

More from Karl Popper

  1. Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
  2. It is easy to obtain confirmations…for nearly every theory—if we look for confirmations.
  3. We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.
  4. Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

All quotations by Karl Popper

Same theme

More on fate

  1. Remember that you are an actor in a play, of such a kind as the playwright may choose.
  2. Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling.
  3. Amor fati: let that be my love from now on!
  4. There is no greater pain than to recall happy times in misery.

Browse the fate theme