Fortune Quotes - Page 21

• Give me the life of the boy whose mother is nurse, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, teacher, angel, and saint, all in one, and whose father is guide, exemplar, and friend. No servants to come between. These are the boys who are born to the best fortune.

  Andrew Carnegie

  Mother, Teacher, Children

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• It is men of desperate fortunes on the one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who go abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road.

  Daniel Defoe

  Adventure, Men, Hands

  Daniel Defoe (1719). “The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner”, p.10

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• Every man is the maker of his own fortune

  Gertrude Stein

  Men, Makers, Every Man

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• See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.

  Jean Cocteau

  Disappointment, Deflation, Plans

  "Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

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• There are such beings in the world -- perhaps one in a thousand -- as the creature you and I should think perfection; where grace and spirit are united to worth, where the manners are equal to the heart and understanding; but such a person may not come in your way, or, if he does, he may not be the eldest son of a man of fortune, the near relation of your particular friend, and belonging to your own county.

  Jane Austen

  Heart, Son, Men

  Jane Austen (2017). “Jane Austen's correspondence and letters: The complete and definitive edition”, p.152, BoD - Books on Demand

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• Ought a man to be confident that he deserves his good fortune, and think much of himself when he has overcome a nation, or city, or empire; or does fortune give this as an example to the victor also of the uncertainty of human affairs, which never continue in one stay? For what time can there be for us mortals to feel confident, when our victories over others especially compel us to dread fortune, and while we are exulting, the reflection that the fatal day comes now to one, now to another, in regular succession, dashes our joy.

  Plutarch

  Men, Thinking, Reflection

  Plutarch (2012). “Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Complete”, p.371, Simon and Schuster

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• For God's love, take things patiently, have sense, Think! We are prisoners and shall always be. Fortune has given us this adversity, Some wicked planetary dispensation, Some Saturn's trick or evil constellation Has given us this, and Heaven, though we had sworn The contrary, so stood when we were born. We must endure it, that's the long and short.

  Geoffrey Chaucer

  Adversity, Thinking, Long

  Geoffrey Chaucer (1966). “The Canterbury Tales”

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• The most part of men, though they have the use of reasoning a little way, as in numbering to some degree; yet it serves them to little use in common life; in which they govern themselves, some better, some worse, according to their differences of experience, quickness of memory, and inclinations to several ends; but specially according to good or evil fortune, and the errors of one another.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Memories, Men, Errors

  Thomas Hobbes (2008). “Leviathan”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• Fact be vertuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth

  Thomas Hobbes

  Facts, Vicious

  Thomas Hobbes (2015). “Leviathan”, p.561, Thomas Hobbes

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• The wheel of fortune turns round incessantly, and who can say to himself, I shall today be uppermost.

  Confucius

  Fate, Today, Wheels

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• In particular, it is absurd to hope to banish envy of other people's possessions or fortunes, if only because the spirit of envy can lead to emulation and ambition and have positive consequences.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Ambition, People, Envy

  Christopher Hitchens (2011). “God is Not Great”, p.74, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• Fame is a skittish jade, more fickle even than Fortune, and apt to shy, and bolt, and plunge away on very trifling causes.

  Anthony Trollope

  Shy, Fickle, Jade

  Anthony Trollope (2016). “Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...”, p.4483, e-artnow (Open Publishing)

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• The worth of a wife is a man's good fortune;
  His jewels are his good children.

  Thiruvalluvar

  Children, Men, Jewels

  "Tirukkural". Book by Thiruvalluvar, 1840.

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• Fantastic fortune thou deceitful light, That cheats the weary traveler by night, Though on a precipice each step you tread, I am resolved to follow where you lead.

  Aphra Behn

  Night, Light, Steps

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• Let it be our endeavour, let it be our task, to keep alight the torch of imperial patriotism, to hold fast the affection and the confidence of our kinsmen across the seas; so that in every vicissitude of fortune the British Empire may present an unbroken front to all her foes, and may carry on even to distant ages the glorious traditions of the British flag.

  Joseph Chamberlain

  Sea, Age, Torches

  Joseph Chamberlain (1897). “Foreign & Colonial Speeches”, London ; New York : Routledge

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• Love of glory, fear of shame, greed for fortune, the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others - all of these are often the causes of the bravery that is spoken so highly of by men.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Men, Bravery, Greed

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• Fortune and humor govern the world.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  World, Sense Of Humor

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• People generally think that it is the world, the environment, external relationships, which stand in one's way, in the way of ones' good fortune... and at bottom it is always man himself that stands in his own way.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Honesty, Men, Thinking

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• In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of co-operation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbors.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Men, Cities, Desire

  Benjamin Disraeli, Sheila Mary Smith (1981). “Sybil: or, the two nations”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• An aspiration is a joy forever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Art, Philosophy, Years

  Robert Louis Stevenson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated)”, p.4514, Delphi Classics

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• It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune. . . .

  Samuel Smiles

  Success, Honesty, Character

  Samuel Smiles (2005). “Self-Help: With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance”, p.287, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Honesty is incompatible with amassing a large fortune.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Honesty

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• I am certain that there are two things in life which are dependable: the delights of the flesh and the delights of literature. I have had the good fortune to enjoy them both equally.

  Peter Greenaway

  Things In Life, Two, Together

  "Fictional character: Nagiko". "The Pillow Book", www.imdb.com. 1996.

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• In prosperous times the mercantile classes often realize fortunes, which go far towards securing them against the future; but unfortunately the working classes, though they share in the general prosperity, do not share in it so largely as in the general adversity.

  Thomas Malthus

  Adversity, Class, Realizing

  "Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application". Book by Thomas Robert Malthus, Book II, Chapter I, "On The Progress of Wealth", Section X, p. 437, 1836.

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• The young nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid their own expenses in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed in impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony-unlike the former Huguenot emigration to Brazil--was evidently subordinate. The adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith.

  Francis Parkman

  Religious, Expectations, Volunteer

  Francis Parkman (1871). “Pioneers of France in the New World”, p.60

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