quotations about fortune
A Change of Fortune hurts a wise Man no more than a Change of the Moon.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1756
Fortune may flatter us, but she herself is not to be flattered.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
It can't be a good sign when your fortune cookie starts out with "Are you sitting down?"
TOM WILSON
Ziggy, Apr. 14, 1998
There is frequently a poison in fortune's gifts.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
I've seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling,
I've felt all its favours and found its decay.
ALISON COCKBURN
The Flowers of the Forest
Bear the greatest fortune as if thou deserved it not.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Fortune favors the brave.
TERENCE
Phormio
When fortune comes seize her in front firmly, because behind she is bald.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Thoughts on Art and Life
The loss of fortune to a true man is but the trumpet challenge to renewed exertion, not the thunder stroke of destruction.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
Fortunes are wrung from the smallest of things
That once were ignored, turning men into kings.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Ragman"
The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Behind every great fortune is a great crime.
JULIA STILES
"Julia Stiles gets Shakespearean again", Salon, June 20, 2019
By working one can bend fortune. She is fond of crafty men.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Salammbo
O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?
HORACE
Satires
Who lets slip Fortune, her shall never find.
Occasion once pass'd by, is bald behind.
ABRAHAM COWLEY
Pyramus and Thisbe
Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.
EURIPIDES
Iphigenia in Tauris
Fortune's favours are too often like thunderbolts--which kill.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
It is more easy to get a favor from Fortune than to keep it.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Maxims
The day of fortune is like a harvest day, We must be busy when the corn is ripe.
GOETHE
Torquato Tasso