Fortune Quotes - Page 4

• No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.

  Plutarch

  Fate, Destiny, Men

  Plutarch (1906). “Essays & Miscellanies...”

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• A broken fortune is like a falling column; the lower it sinks, the greater weight it has to sustain.

  Ovid

  Fall, Broken, Weight

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• Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Men, Giving, Slavery

  Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.313, Library of Alexandria

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• It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Greatness, Guilt, Criminals

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• The prudent man really frames his own fortunes for himself.

  Plautus

  Men, Prudent

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• Fortune, men say, doth give too much to many, But yet she never gave enough to any.

  John Harington

  Men, Giving, Too Much

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• Fortune's unjust; she ruins oft the brave, and him who should be victor, makes the slave.

  John Dryden

  Brave, Unjust, Ruins

  John Dryden (1808). “The works of John Dryden, with notes and a life of the author by sir W. Scott”, p.325

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• We make a goddess of Fortune ... and place her in the highest heaven. But it is not fortune that is exalted and powerful, but we ourselves that are abject and weak.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Powerful, Heaven, Goddess

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.365

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• The good, we do it; the evil, that is fortune; man is always right, and destiny always wrong.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Destiny, Men, Evil

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• Fortune is said to be blind, but her favorites never are. Ambition has the eye of the eagle, prudence that of the lynx; the first looks through the air, the last along the ground.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Ambition, Eye, Air

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• There is nothing which continues longer than a moderate fortune; nothing of which one sees sooner the end than a large fortune.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Ends, Moderates

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• A pioneer is generally a man who has outlived his credit or fortune in the cultivated parts.

  Benjamin Rush

  Men, Pioneers, Credit

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• Fortune moulds and circumscribes human affairs as she pleases.
  [Lat., Fortuna humana fingit artatque ut lubet.]

  Plautus

  Affair, Mould, Fortuna

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• The most wretched fortune is safe; for there is no fear of anything worse.
  [Lat., Fortuna miserrima tuta est:
  Nam timor eventus deterioris abest.]

  Ovid

  Safe, No Fear, Fortuna

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• Something is always wanting to incomplete fortune.
  [Lat., Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.]

  Horace

  Incomplete

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• The day of fortune is like a harvest day,
  We must be busy when the corn is ripe.
  [Ger., Ein tag der Gunst ist wie ein Tag der Ernte,
  Man muss geschaftig sein sobald sie reift.]

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Corn, Tag

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• Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none.

  Martial

  Giving, Too Much, Wealth

  Martial (1871). “The Epigrams of Martial”, p.549

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• Every man should stay within his own fortune.
  [Lat., Intera fortunam quisque debet manere suam.]

  Ovid

  Men, Should, Every Man

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• Fortune is like a widow won,And truckles to the bold alone.

  William Somervile

  Widows

  William Somervile (1802*). “The poetical works of William Somervile, with the life of the author. Cooke's ed”, p.78

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• Fortune rules in all things, and advances and depresses things more out of her own will than right and justice.

  Sallust

  Depressing, Justice, All Things

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• The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss any one's ass.

  William Blake

  God, Kissing, Luck

  William Blake (1979). “Complete writings: with variant readings”

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• How Fortune piles her sports when she begins to practise them!

  Ben Jonson

  Sports, Practise

  Ben Jonson, William Gifford (1894). “Ben Jonson”

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• It has been remarked that almost every character which has excited either attention or pity has owed part of its success to merit, and part to a happy concurrence of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Cromwell exchanged countries, the one might have been a sergeant and the other an exciseman.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Country, Character, Favors

  Oliver Goldsmith (1819). “Essays and poems, by Dr. Oliver Goldsmith. To which are prefixed, memoirs of the author”, p.3

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• All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.

  Anita Brookner

  God, Winning, Favors

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• Fortune, like other females, prefers a lover to a master, and submits with impatience to control; but he that wooes her with opportunity and importunity will seldom court her in vain.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Opportunity, Female, Lovers

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”

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