You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.

The line expresses an irony of human agency: attempts to evade an unwanted outcome can become the very mechanism that brings it about. It points to the limits of control and the way fear-driven choices narrow options, sometimes steering us into predictable traps. In narrative terms, it echoes the “self-fulfilling prophecy” motif—where avoidance behavior sets causal chains in motion. Read more broadly, it cautions against living reactively; confronting risks directly, or acting from values rather than anxiety, may reduce the likelihood that avoidance will backfire. The quote’s enduring appeal lies in its compact articulation of tragic inevitability and psychological insight.