Walter Russell Mead

Unlike some, I don't claim to hold the mystic key to the future. But judging from past events, it seems to me that those who want to prophesy the imminent end of America's unique global role have a harder case to make than those who think we will limp on for a while, making a mess of things as usual.

American Educator

Hermann Ebbinghaus

On the basis of the familiar experience that that which is learned with difficulty is better retained, it would have been safe to prophesy such an effect from the greater number of repetitions.

German Psychologist

Fredrik Bajer

But I feel convinced, and I venture even to prophesy in this regard, that the time will come when there will also be a minister of peace in the cabinet, seated beside the ministers of war.

Danish Writer

James Surowiecki

In the auto industry, there's one thing you can always count on: if a new environmental or safety rule is proposed, executives will prophesy disaster.

American Journalist

Eric Hoffer

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

American Writer

Winston Churchill

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.

British Statesman

Josh Billings

Don't ever prophesy; for if you prophesy wrong, nobody will forget it; and if you prophesy right, nobody will remember it.

American Comedian

Robert Reich

If we give up on politics, we're done for. Powerlessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

American Economist

Auberon Herbert

I venture to prophesy that there lies before us a bitter and an evil time.

English Writer

Mark Twain

Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.

Used when the source of the prophecy is a deity or supernatural force.

Divine Insight

Often appears in historical or mythological texts discussing prophecies.

Historical Context

Authors may use 'prophesy' to add drama or foreshadow future events in stories.

Literary Device

Applied in everyday, non-religious forecasting or predictions.

Secular Predictions

Used when predictions are made from interpretable signs or data.

Based on Indicators

Doesn't imply spiritual or mystical insight, just informed prediction.

Non-spiritual

 than if a jester falls off his step stool. Oedipus's tragic flaw is hubris, or excessive pride, and it causes him to attempt to avoid the fate prophesied for him, which is exactly what makes it happen. He's a particularly unlucky soul

Why tragedies are...

 spell but while the reciting of prophesies is historical fact questions about those vapors remaining brain area on geological map archaeologist John Hale believes the answers lie deep underground analysis of the bedrock

The Mystery of the...

 The writer George Eliot cautioned us that, among all forms of mistake, prophesy is the most gratuitous. The person that we would all acknowledge