Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself, for all is but fortune. William Shakespeare, The Tempest V i @259, Stefano
Blind fortune still
Bestows her gifts on such as cannot use them. Ben Jonson, Every Man Out of His Humour, 1599
Too poor to bribe, and too proud to importune,
He had not the method of making a fortune. Thomas Gray, The Progress of Poesy, 1757
Be happy, drink, think each day your own as you live it and leave the rest to fortune. Euripides c.485-406 B.C., Greek dramatist
Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune’s greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. Baruch Spinoza
Fortune assists the brave. Terence, Phormio, variations & attributions
cf.
Fortune favours the bold. Virgil, variations & attributions
cf.
Fortune befriends the bold. John Dryden, variations & attributions
I can enjoy her while she’s kind;
But when she dances in the wind,
And shakes the wings, and will not stay,
I puff the prostitute away. John Dryden, re fortune, translation of Horace
I believe in America. America has made my fortune. The Godfather 1972 starring Marlon Brando & Al Pacino & James Caan & Richard S Castellano & Richard Duvall & Sterling Hayden & John Marley & Richard Conte & Diane Keaton et al, director Francis Ford Coppola, opening scene
Now he had become the still centre of that spinning wheel of misfortune. The world turned round him leaving him miraculously untouched. Croupier 1998 starring Clive Owen & Alex Kingston & Gina McKee & Kate Hardie & Nicholas Ball & Alexander Morton & Nick Reding & Paul Reynolds & Barnaby Kay, director Mike Hodges
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
When Fortune smiles, I smile to think how quickly she will frown. Robert Southwell
I have always believed that all things depended upon Fortune, and nothing upon ourselves. Lord Byron
Fortune, we are told, is a blind and fickle foster-mother, who showers her gifts at random upon her nurslings. But we do her a grave injustice if we believe such an accusation. Trace a man’s career from his cradle to his grave and mark how Fortune has treated him. You will find that when he is once dead she can for the most part be vindicated from the charge of any but very superficial fickleness. Her blindness is the merest fable; she can espy her favourites long before they are born. We are as days and have had our parents for our yesterdays, but through all the fair weather of a clear parental sky the eye of Fortune can discern the coming storm, and she laughs as she places her favourites it may be in a London alley or those whom she is resolved to ruin in kings’ palaces. Seldom does she relent towards those whom she has suckled unkindly and seldom does she completely fail a favoured nursling. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh
Sir Anthony: The fortune is saddled with a wife. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals
Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labour. John Ruskin
Fortune makes a fool of those she favours too much. Horace
Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth. And set down as gain each day that Fortune grant. Horace, Epistles
For in all adversity of fortune the worst sort of misery is to have been happy. Boethius
The true extent of Britain’s mountain of unclaimed cash. Could you share in the billions waiting to be claimed. Lost pensions, bank accounts and investments. Tonight: Claim Your Cash? Britain’s Hidden Fortune, ITV 2024