Fortunes Quotes
More Fortunes Quotes
I've opened the way for others to make fortunes, but a fortune for myself was not what I was after.
daniel boone— As quoted in Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1993) by John Mack Faragher p. 301
I have got the North Pole out of my system after twenty- three years of effort, hard work, disappointments, hardships, privations, more or less suffering, and some risks? The work is the finish, the cap and climax of nearly four hundred years of effort, loss of life, and expenditure of fortunes by the civilized nations of the world, and it has been accomplished in a way that is thoroughly American. I am content.
Robert Edwin Peary— 1909 Diary entry, Apr. Quoted inTheNorth Pole (published1910).
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— Book II, Chapter I, On The Progress of Wealth, Section X, p. 437
My pride fell with my fortunes.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c. 1599-1600), Act I, scene 2.
If you herald some turn in our fortunes, if you bring us some measure of grace thanks, unicorn … And even if you do not, thanks for the brightness of your company at a dark time .
— Roger Zelazny, in the Chronicles of Amber novel Sign of the Unicorn (1975), Corwin, in Ch. 5
I see men's judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act III, scene 13, line 31
Il en est un peu des réputations littéraires, et surtout des réputations de théâtre, comme des fortunes qu'on faisait autrefois dans les Iles. Il suffisait presque autrefois d'y passer, pour parvenir à une grande richesse, mais ces grandes fortunes mêmes ont nui à celles de la génération suivante: les terres épuisées n'ont plus rendu si abondamment.
nicolas chamfort— Maximes et Pensées (Van Bever, Paris :1923), #442There is something is common between literary, and above all theatrical, reputations and the fortunes which used of old to be made in the West Indies. In the early days it was almost sufficient to reach those islands to return with incalculable riches; but the very vastness of the fortunes thus obtained was prejudicial to those of the following generation, since the exhausted earth could yield no more.Maxims and Considerations, #442
Nature magically suits the man to his fortunes, by making these the fruit of his character.
ralph waldo emerson— Fate (The Problem)
The trade of insurance gives great security to the fortunes of private people, and by dividing among a great many that loss which would ruin an individual, makes it fall light and easy upon the whole society.
Adam Smith— Chapter I, Part III, p. 821
In England, success in the profession of the law leads to some very great objects of ambition; and yet how few men, born to easy fortunes, have ever in this country been emminent in that profession?
Adam Smith— Chapter I, Part III, p. 824
The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who moves them.
leonardo da vinci— Of Dice (XX Humorous Writings)
Men's fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.
Herodotus— Herodotus, in A. D. Godley, translator, Herodotus (1931), vol. 1, book 1, section 207, p. 261.
Avoir sa belle-mère en province quand on demeure à Paris, et vice versa, est une de ces bonnes fortunes qui se rencontrent toujours trop rarement.
honoré de balzac— To be able to keep a mother-in-law in the country while he lives in Paris, and vice versa, is a piece of good fortune which a husband too rarely meets with.Part III, Meditation XXV: Allies, Section II: Of the Mother-in-Law
If you'd asked me as a kid how rich people became poor, I'd have said by spending all their money. That's how it happens in books and movies, because that's the colorful way to do it. But in fact the way most fortunes are lost is not through excessive expenditure, but through bad investments.
paul graham— "How To Lose Time And Money", July 2010
Keynes disdained inside information in fact, he once declared that Wall Street traders could make huge fortunes if only they would disregard their "inside" information and his own oracles were nothing but his minute scrutiny of balance sheets, his encyclopedic knowledge of finance , his intuition into personalities, and a certain flair for trading.
robert heilbroner— Chapter IX, John Maynard Keynes, p. 248-249
The United Nations will spearhead our efforts to manage the new conflicts (that afflict our world)....Yes the principles of the United Nations Charter are worth our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
colin powell— General Colin Powell, 4/21/93, receiving the UN-USA Global Leadership Award
The landed interest is the great foundation upon which rest the fabric of society, and the institutions of the country. I mean no disparagement to manufactures and commerce; I know how essential they are to the happiness and prosperity of the country, and how much they add even to the value of the land. But the land of the country is the country itself, and the owner of the land has the deepest and most permanent interest in its well-being; tied down to the soil, he must share the fortunes of his country, whether in its greatness or its fall.
temple, henry, 3rd viscount palmerston— Speech in the House of Commons (3 March 1831), quoted in George Henry Francis, Opinions and Policy of the Right Honourable Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B., M.P., &c. as Minister, Diplomatist, and Statesman, During More Than Forty Years of Public Life (London: Colburn and Co., 1852), pp. 172-173.
Formerly when great fortunes were only made in war, war was a business; but now, when great fortunes are only made by business, business is war.
— Christian Nestell Bovee (1862) Intuitions and summaries of thought Vol 1. p.82.
The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride; True is the charge, nor by themselves denied. Are they not then in strictest reason clear, Who wisely come to mend their fortunes here?
Charles Churchill— Charles Churchill, Prophecy of Famine, line 195.
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— Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, p. 100 (2007).
To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness, and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.
Woodrow Wilson— War Message to Congress. April 2, 1917.
Men’s judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike.
— Enobarbus, scene xiii (Act III)
My pride fell with my fortunes.
— Rosalind, Sc. ii
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name Is at last gasp.
— Queen, scene v
The poverty of yesterday was less squalid than the poverty we purchase with our industry today. fortunes were smaller then as well.
jorge luis borges— "The Elderly Lady", in Brodie's Report (1970); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor.
— Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence (1776).
