How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
'Ah,' said Löwenthal. 'Another coincidence' (I.6.270).
There are tons of strange coincidences in the novel—for example, there are a lot of folks who happen to end up in Hokitika after meeting or knowing each other elsewhere. Of course, given the astral structuring of the book, it seems we're supposed to view most to all of these "coincidences" as preordained by the stars.
Quote #2
He had escaped his past—and yet he could be called neither an ambitious man, nor an unduly lucky one (I.7.19).
Of course, even with the book's suggestion that destiny is written in the stars, there's still a lot of talk of chance and luck—that is, whether chance or luck favors a particular person. Here, the narrator is referring to Gascoigne.
Quote #3
'One of the first lessons one learns, in this discipline, is that nothing about the future is incontrovertible,' said Mrs. Wells. 'The reason is very simple: a person's fortune always changes in the telling of it' (II.10.51).
When Mrs. Wells is defending herself against Mannering's charge that she's a swindler (an uphill battle, we're afraid), she throws a monkey wrench into this notion that the stars determine everything: If you tell people what their destiny is, she claims, you will likely change it. Hmm, we wonder how her fortune telling changed the lives of the characters in the novel?