Coniunx est mihi, sunt nati; dedimus tot pignora fatis.
I have a wife, I have sons; all these hostages have I given to fortune.
Lucan,Pharsalia, J. D. Duff, translation (1928), book 7, line 662, p. 418–19.
Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade; The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd, The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
Alexander Pope,An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle IV, line 195.
Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles.
Will Fortune never come with both hands full, But write her fair words still in foulest letters? She either gives a stomach, and no food; Such are the poor, in health: or else a feast, And takes away the stomach; such are the rich, That have abundance, and enjoy it not.
Know thus far forth: Byaccident moststrange, bountiful Fortune — Now my dear lady — hath mineenemies Brought to this shore; and by myprescience I find my zenith doth depend upon A most auspiciousstar, whoseinfluence Ifnow I court not, but omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop.
Si fortuna juvat, caveto tolli; Si fortuna tonat, caveto mergi.
If fortune favors you do not be elated; if she frowns do not despond.
Ausonius,Septem Sapientium Sententiæ Septenis Versibus Explicatæ, IV. 6.
That conceit, elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles V., in his instructions to the King, his son, "that fortune hath somewhat the nature of a woman, that if she be too much wooed she is the farther off."
Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat; Found the one gift of which Fortune bereft us, Lost all the others she lets us devote.
Robert Browning,The Lost Leader. Referring to Wordsworth when he turned Tory.
Cæsarem vehis, Cæsarisque fortunam.
You carry Cæsar and Cæsar's fortune.
Cæsar's remark to a pilot in a storm. Sometimes given:Cæsarem portas et fortunam ejus. SeeBacon,Essays,Of Fortune.
Fortune, the great commandress of the world, Hath divers ways to advance her followers: To some she gives honor without deserving; To other some, deserving without honor; Some wit, some wealth,—and some, wit without wealth; Some wealth without wit; some nor wit nor wealth.
If hindrances obstruct thy way, Thy magnanimity display. And let thy strength be seen: But O, if Fortune fill thy sail With more than a propitious gale, Take half thy canvas in.
Neuer thinke you fortune can beare the sway, Where Virtue's force, can cause her to obay.
Queen Elizabeth, preserved byGeorge Puttenham in his "Art of Poesie", Book III. Of Ornament, "which" (he says) "our soueraigne Lady wrote in defiance of Fortune".
Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgment.
Homer,The Iliad, Book XX, line 85. Pope's translation.
Laudo manentem; si celeres quatit Pennas, resigno quæ dedit, et mea Virtute me involvo, probamque Pauperiem sine dote quære.
I praise her (Fortune) while she lasts; if she shakes her quick wings, I resign what she has given, and take refuge in my own virtue, and seek honest undowered Poverty.
Who thinks that fortune cannot change her mind, Prepares a dreadful jest for all mankind. And who stands safest? Tell me, is it he That spreads and swells in puff'd prosperity, Or bless'd with little, whose preventing care In peace provides fit arms against a war?
Alexander Pope,Second Book of Horace, Satire II, line 123.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Psalms, XVI. 6.
Præsente fortuna pejor est futuri metus.
Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.
Regnier,Satire, XIII. Pseudo-Sallust,Epigram de Rep. Ordin., II. 1. QuotingAppius Claudius Cæcus, the Censor. Same idea inPlautus,Trinummus, II. 2. 84.Cervantes,Don Quixote. 1. 4.Schiller,Wallenstein's Death, XII. 8. 77.Metastasio,Morte d'Abele, II.
Sed profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur; ea res cunctas ex lubidine magis, quam ex vero, celebrat, obscuratque.
But assuredly Fortune rules in all things; she raises to eminence or buries in oblivion everything from caprice rather than from well-regulated principle.
Felix, quisquis novit famulum Rogemque pati, Vultusque potest variare suos! Rapuit vires pondusque malis, Casus animo qui tulit æquo.
Happy the man who can endure the highest and the lowest fortune. He, who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity, has deprived misfortune of its power.
Iniqua raro maximis virtutibus Fortuna parcit. Nemo se tuto diu Periculis offerre tam crebris potest, Quem sæpe transit casus, aliquando invenit.
Adverse fortune seldom spares men of the noblest virtues. No one can with safety expose himself often to dangers. The man who has often escaped is at last caught.
So is Hope Changed for Despair—one laid upon the shelf, We take the other. Under heaven's high cope Fortune is god—all you endure and do Depends on circumstance as much as you.
By wondrous accident perchance one may Grope out a needle in a load of hay; And though a white crow be exceedingly rare, A blind man may, by fortune, catch a hare.
J. Taylor,A Kicksey Winsey, Part VII.
Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove An unrelenting foe to love, And, when we meet a mutual heart, Come in between, and bid us part?
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