Quotes about Fortune Telling

William Petty

Lottery men do also tax themselves in the general, though out of hopes of Advantage in particular: A Lottery therefore is properly a Tax upon unfortunate self-conceited fools; men that have good opinion of their own luckiness, or that have believed some Fortune-teller or Astrologer, who had promised them great success about the time and place of the Lottery …. Now because the world abounds with this kinde of fools, it is not fit that every man that will may cheat every man that would be cheated; but it is rather ordained, that the Sovereign should have the Guardianship of these fools, or that some Favourite should beg the Sovereigns right of taking advantage of such men’s folly, even as in the case of Lunaticks and Idiots.

Lotteries in England of the 17th century were recognized as a societal problem. In 17th century England it was the King who was taking advantage of citizen’s weaknesses. Today, in a democracy, it is the average people and the gambling operators who take advantage of those who are susceptible to gambling problems.

Swami Vivekananda

Astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food, and rest.

Walter Benjamin

He who asks fortune-tellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner intimation of coming events that is a thousand times more exact than anything they may say.

Walter Scott

Good even, good fair moon, good even to thee. I prithee, dear moon, now show to me the form and the features, the speech and degree, of the man that true lover of mine shall be.

Charles Dickens

There was not one straight floor from the foundation to the roof; the ceilings were so fantastically clouded by smoke and dust, that old women might have told fortunes in them better than in grouts of tea.

Charles Kingsley

The 18th century, which is usually held to be the most "materialistic" of epochs, was, in fact, a most "spiritualistic" one; in which ghosts, demons, quacks, philosophers' stones, enchanters' wands, mysteries and mummeries, were as fashionable—as they will probably be again some day.

John Milton

Let no man seek
Henceforth to be foretold that shall befall
Him or his children.

Roger Ebert

If there's one thing I've learned in this life, it's that you never say no to an old gypsy woman with a blind eye and leprous fingernails.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

You can make a good living from soothsaying but not from truthsaying.

James Randi

I don't expect that the million will ever be won, simply because there is no confirming evidence for any paranormal claims to date.

Maimonides

Astrology is a sickness, not a science ... It is a tree under the shade of which all sorts of superstitions thrive.

Molly Sims

I've spoken to people who I swear can tell the future.

Rebecca West

All gambling is the telling of a fortune, but of a monstrously depleted fortune, empty of everything save one numerical circumstance, shorn of all such richness as a voyage across the water, a fair man that loves you, a dark woman that means you harm.

China Mieville

You can't see the future, there's no such thing. It's all bets. You'll never get the same answer from two seers. But that doesn't mean either of them's wrong.

Lil Nas X

I'm not, like - what's the word when you believe in a lot of magic? Superstitious.

Paulo Coelho

If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise," said the seer. "If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.

Forest Whitaker

It's all about destiny. That's why people look at the zodiac or the I Ching - because there's a certain order to life, and that order has been lived since the beginning of time. No matter what you do, you're going to live inside of it.