Fork in the road (metaphor)

A fork in the road is a metaphor, based on a literal expression, for a deciding moment in life or history when a major choice of options is required. Compare "crossing the Rubicon".

Knight at the Crossroads, Viktor Vasnetsov

Examples
  • There is a common motif in Russian folk tales, where a vityaz (Russian knight) comes to a fork in the road and sees a menhir with an inscription that reads: "If you ride to the left, you will lose your horse, if you ride to the right, you will lose your head".
  • The phrase appears in the Book of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 21:19–23 NRSV).

"Mortal, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them shall issue from the same land. And make a signpost, make it for a fork in the road leading to a city; mark out the road for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah and to Jerusalem the fortified.

  • A fork in the road is mused upon by Robert Frost in his poem "The Road Not Taken", which begins, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..."
  • Malapropist extraordinary Yogi Berra's saying "When you come to a fork in the road, take it" made the title of his book "When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!: Inspiration and Wisdom From One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes".
  • It is also depicted in the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland where Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a cheshire cat in the tree.
  • The album cover of A Nice Pair includes a literal depiction of a fork in the road, a visual pun on the expression..
gollark: The world is very interconnected these days so stuff happening elsewhere affects me somewhat. And I do also care about suffering being caused, even if that doesn't directly affect people in my country.
gollark: I can definitely judge them by their *actions* and whatnot.
gollark: ???
gollark: ... did I say it was?
gollark: Even if it actually *is* true that living in an authoritarian regime is similar to living in... well, I guess the comparison is just a "relatively standard reasonably free Western country" or something... for the average non-politically-active person (which is probably the case for *some* authoritarian regimes), that doesn't really make authoritarian regimes okay.

See also
  • Fork in the road (disambiguation) (for other meanings of Fork in the road)
  • Crossroads (culture)
  • Road junction

References
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