Fortuna Quotes
More Fortuna Quotes
fortuna vitrea est, tum cum splendet frangitur.
publilius syrus— Fortune is like glass; when she shines, she is broken.
— Syrus, Maxims. 283.
Sí che vegga il mondo, quando la fortuna vuol torre a 'ssassinare uno uomo, quante diverse vie la piglia.
Benvenuto Cellini— Let all the world witness how many different means Fortune employs when she wishes to destroy a man.
— Autobiography, vol. 1, ch. 113; translation from Benvenuto Cellini (trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella) My Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 196.
Breves et mutabiles vices rerum sunt, et fortuna nunquam simpliciter indulget.
quintus curtius rufus— The fashions of human affairs are brief and changeable, and fortune never remains long indulgent.
— IV, 14, 20.
L’uomo mai un disegno non fa, che la fortuna un altro non ne faccia.
bernardo dovizi— Act I, scene I. — (Fessenio).
— Translation: Man never makes a plan but fortune makes another.
— Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 338.
Nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque, sequamur; Quidquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
virgil— My chief, let Fate cry on or back,
'Tis ours to follow, nothing slack:
Whate'er betide, he only cures
The stroke of Fortune who endures.Lines 709–710 (translated by John Conington).Cf. Dryden's translation:
O goddess-born, resign'd in ev'ry state,
With patience bear, with prudence push your fate.
By suff'ring well, our Fortune we subdue;
Fly when she frowns, and, when she calls, pursue.
Variant translation of Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est :
virgil— Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
Speravimus ista Dum fortuna fuit.
virgil— Such hopes I had indeed, while Heaven was kind.Lines 42–43 (translated by John Dryden).
Præsente fortuna pejor est futuri metus.
Quintilian— Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.
— Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria, XII. 5.
Nihil est periculosius in hominibus mutata subito fortuna.
Quintilian— Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.
— Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria, CCLX.
Breves et mutabiles vices rerum sunt, et fortuna nunquam simpliciter indulget.
quintus curtius rufus— The fashions of human affairs are brief and changeable, and fortune never remains long indulgent.
— Quintus Curtius Rufus, De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, IV, 14, 20.
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus Advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias, Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem. Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum, Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi, Nunc tamen interea haec prisco quae more parentum Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias, Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu, Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
— By many lands and over many a wave
I come, my brother, to your piteous grave,
To bring you the last offering in death
And o’er dumb dust expend an idle breath;
For fate has torn your living self from me,
And snatched you, brother, O, how cruelly!
Yet take these gifts, brought as our fathers bade
For sorrow’s tribute to the passing shade;
A brother’s tears have wet them o’er and o’er;
And so, my brother, hail, and farewell evermore!
— CI (translated by Sir William Marris)
Breves et mutabiles vices rerum sunt, et fortuna nunquam simpliciter indulget.
— The fashions of human affairs are brief and changeable, and fortune never remains long indulgent.
— IV, 14, 20.
Verum ubi pro labore desidia, pro continentia et aequitate libido atque superbia invasere, fortuna simul cum moribus immutatur. Ita imperium semper ad optimum quemque a minus bono transfertur. (II)
— But when sloth has introduced itself in the place of industry, and covetousness and pride in that of moderation and equity, the condition of a state is altered together with its morals; and thus authority is always transferred from the less to the more deserving.
Nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque, sequamur; Quidquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
— Cf. Dryden's translation:
O goddess-born, resign'd in ev'ry state,
With patience bear, with prudence push your fate.
By suff'ring well, our Fortune we subdue;
Fly when she frowns, and, when she calls, pursue.
Variant translation of Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est :
— Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
Audentes fortuna juvat.
— Cf. Dryden's translation:
Fortune befriends the bold.
When fortuna spins you downward, go out to a movie and get more out of life.
john kennedy toole— Ch. 2, section V
Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi; Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit Imago.
virgil— My life is lived, and I have played
The part that Fortune gave,
And now I pass, a queenly shade,
Majestic to the grave.Lines 653–654 (translated by John Conington).Cf. Dryden's translation:
My fatal course is finish'd; and I go,
A glorious name, among the ghosts below.Cf. also Symmons' translation:
Yet have I lived!—and lived for noble ends!
My shade in glory to the shades descends.
Superat quoniam fortuna, sequamur, Quoque vocat, vertamus iter.
virgil— 'Tis fate diverts our course, and fate we must obey.Lines 22–23 (translated by John Dryden).
Aurea rumpunt tecta quietem, Vigilesque trahit purpura noctes. O si pateant pectora ditum, Quantos intus sublimis agit fortuna metus.
— Golden palaces break man's rest, and purple robes cause watchful nights.
— Oh, if the breasts of the rich could be seen into, what terrors high fortune places within!
— Seneca, Hercules Œtæus, 646.
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.
— Seneca, Hercules Furens, 325.
O fortuna, viris invida fortibus, Quam non æque bonis præmia dividis!
— O Fortune, that enviest the brave, what unequal rewards thou bestowest on the righteous!
— Seneca, Hercules Furens, 524.
Fortes fortuna iuvat.
pliny the elder— Fortune favours the brave.Attributed by Pliny the Younger to his uncle during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in which the Elder diedQuoted in Pliny (1927) [c.100 CE]. "LXVI, to Cornelius Tacitus" (in English) (eBook). Letters of Pliny. translated by William Melmoth. Hoboken, NJ: Bibliobytes. pp. p. 48. ISBN 0585049971. "Here he stopped to consider whether he should turn back again; to which the pilot advising him, "Fortune", said he, "favours the brave; steer to where Pomponianus is."" Commonly quoted as "Fortune favours the bold".
fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.
— Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none.
— Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), XII. 10. 2.
fortuna humana fingit artatque ut lubet.
— Fortune moulds and circumscribes human affairs as she pleases.
— Plautus, Captivi, II. 2. 54.
Fortes fortuna iuvat.
— Fortune favours the brave.
— Attributed by Pliny the Younger to his uncle during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in which the Elder died
— Quoted in Pliny (1927) [c.100 CE]. "LXVI, to Cornelius Tacitus" (in English) (eBook). Letters of Pliny. translated by William Melmoth. Hoboken, NJ: Bibliobytes. pp. p. 48. ISBN 0585049971. "Here he stopped to consider whether he should turn back again; to which the pilot advising him, "Fortune", said he, "favours the brave; steer to where Pomponianus is.""
— Commonly quoted as "Fortune favours the bold".
Heu, fortuna, quis est crudelior in nos Te deus? Ut semper gaudes illudere rebus Humanis!
— O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?
— Book II, satire viii, line 61 (translated by John Conington).
fortuna multis dat nimis, satis nulli.
— Fortune to many gives too much, enough to none.
— XII, 10.
Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi; Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit Imago.
— Cf. Dryden's translation:
My fatal course is finish'd; and I go,
A glorious name, among the ghosts below.
— Cf. also Symmons' translation:
Yet have I lived!—and lived for noble ends!
My shade in glory to the shades descends.
