War and Peace
Beginning of Book Three

"We are forced to fall back on fatalism to explain the irrational events of history (that is to say, events the intelligence of which we do not see). The more we strive to account for such events in history rationally, the more irrational and incomprehensible do they become to us.

Every man lives for himself, using his freedom to attain his personal aims, and feels with his whole being that he can at any moment perform or not perform this or that action; but, as soon as he has done it, that action accomplished at a certain moment in time becomes irrevocable and belongs to history, in which it has not a free but a pre-destined significance.

There are two sides to life of every man: there is the individual existence which is free in proportion as his interest are abstract; and his elemental life as a unit in the human swarm, in which he must inevitably obey the laws laid down for him.

Man lives consciously for himself but unconsciously he serves as an instrument for the accomplishment of historical and social ends. A deed done is irrevocable, and tha taction of his coinciding in time with the actions of millions of other men assumes an historical significance. The higher a man stands in the social scale, th emore connexions he has with others and the more power he has over them, the more conspicuous is the predestination and inevitability of every act he commits.
"The hearts of kings are in the in the hand of God."
A king is the slave of history/
History, that is, the unconscious, universal, swarm-life of mankind, uses every moment of the life of kings for its own purposes.