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Fortune is a god and rules men's lives.—AESCHYLUS, The Choephoroe
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If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.—BACON, Of Fortune
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Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.—BACON, Of Fortune
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Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.—BACON, Of Delays
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We cannot be more faithful to ourselves,
In anything that's manly, than to make
Ill fortune as contemptible to us
As it makes us to others.—BEAUMONT & FLETCHER, Honest Man's Fortune
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I am not now in fortune's power;
He that is down can fall no lower.—SAMUEL BUTLER, Hudibras
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The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
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Every man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
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Fortune may have yet a better success in reserve for you, and they who lose to-day may win tomorrow.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
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Fortune, the great commandress of the world,
Hath divers ways to advance her followers:
To some she gives honour without deserving,
To other some, deserving without honour.—GEORGE CHAPMAN, All Fools
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Do Fortune as she list, I stand prepared.—DANTE, Inferno
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A man must take the fat with the lean.—DICKENS, David Copperfield
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We make our fortunes and we call them fate.—DISRAELI
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I think that Fortune watcheth o'er our lives,
Surer than we. But well said: he who strives
Will find his gods strive for him equally.—EURIPIDES, Iphigenia in Tauris
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Hairbreadth missings of happiness looks like the insults of Fortune.—FIELDING, Tom Jones
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Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.—GIBBON, Decline and Fall
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To what fortuitous concurrence do we not owe every pleasure and convenience of our lives.—GOLDSMITH, The Vicar of Wakefield
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Fortune, men say, doth give too much to many,
But yet she never gave enough to any.—SIR JOHN HARRINGTON, Epigrams
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Some believe that all things are subject to the chances of fortune, and that the world has no governor to move it.—JUVENAL, Satires
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I am unwilling to mix my fortune with him that is going down the wind.—SAMUEL PEPYS, Diary
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Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and give them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and resolved spirit raises itself, and becomes more conspicuous in times of disaster and ill fortune.—PLUTARCH, Lives
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Fortune can take from us nothing but what she gave us.—Proverb
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If you are too fortunate you will not know yourself.—Proverb
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Fortune is like glass,—the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.—PUBLILIUS SYRUS, Sententiae
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When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.—PUBLILIUS SYRUS, Sententiae
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It is more easy to get a favour from fortune than to keep it.—PUBLILIUS SYRUS, Sententiae
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Fortune dreads the brave, and is only terrible to the coward.—SENECA
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I am a man whom Fortune hath cruelly scratched.—SHAKESPEARE, All's Well that Ends Well
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Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer'd.—SHAKESPEARE, Cymbeline
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A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
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Will Fortune never come with both hands full
But write her fair words still in foulest letters?
She either gives a stomach and no food;
Such are the poor in health; or else a feast
And takes away the stomach.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV
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We are ready to try our fortunes to the last man.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV
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Yield not thy neck
To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind
Still ride in triumph over all mischance.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry VI
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When Fortune means to men most good,
She looks upon them with a threatening eye.—SHAKESPEARE, King John
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The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune.—SHAKESPEARE, King Lear
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Fortune, good night, smile once more; turn thy wheel.—SHAKESPEARE, King Lear
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Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward
To what they were before.—SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth
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To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.—SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing
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It makes us, or it mars us.—SHAKESPEARE, Othello
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We have seen better days.—SHAKESPEARE, Timon of Athens
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All states with others' ruin built
To ruin run amain.
No chance of Fortune's calms
Can cast my fortune down.
When Fortune smiles, I smile to think
How quickly she will frown.—ROBERT SOUTHWELL, I Envy Not Their Hap
