"I should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead." (Homer, "The Odyssey", cca. 750 BC)
"Fortune always will confer an aura
Of worth, unworthily; and in this
world
The lucky person passes for a genius." (Euripedes, "The Heracleidae", 430–429 BC)
"Man is born for uprightness. If a man lose his uprightness, and yet live, his escape from death is the effect of mere good fortune." (Confucius, "Analects", cca. 4th century)
"The makers of fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of authors for their own poems, or of parents for their children, besides that natural love of it for the sake of use and profit." (Plato, "Republic", cca. 380-370)
"Friends are much better tried in bad fortune than in good." (Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics" cca. 325 BC)
"The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances." (Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics" cca. 325 BC)
"Is it possible, then, for any man to apprehend in advance occurrences for which no cause or reason can be assigned? What do we mean when we employ such terms as luck, fortune, accident, turn of the die, except that we are seeking to describe events which happened and came to pass in such a way that they either might not have happened and come to pass at all or might have happened and come to pass under quite different circumstances? How then can an event be anticipated and predicted which occurs fortuitously and as a result of blind chance and of the spinning of Fortune's wheel?" (Marcus Tulius Cicero, "De Divinatione", 44 BC)
"An infant realm and fortune hard
Compel me thus my shores to guard." (Virgil, "Aeneid", 29–19 BC)
"A great fortune is a great slavery." (Seneca the Younger, "Ad Polybium De Consolatione" ["Of Consolation, To Polybius"], cca. 43-44)
"There was more courage in bearing trouble than in escaping from it; the brave and the energetic cling to hope, even in spite of fortune; the cowardly and the indolent are hurried by their fears,' said Plotius Firmus, Roman Praetorian." (Tacitus, "TheHistories", 100–110)
"These times having the rare good fortune that you may think what you like and say what you think." (Tacitus, "TheHistories", 100–110)
"There are three attributes for which I am grateful to Fortune: that I was born, first, human and not animal; second, man and not woman; and third, Greek and not barbarian." (Thales of Miletus [attributed by Diogenes Laërtius in "Opinions of Eminent Philosophers", 3rd century])
"A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)
"Everything is destiny. A man should accept obediently what is correct [in his destiny]. If one obeys the principles of his nature and destiny, he will obtain what is correct in them. If one destroys principle and indulges in desires to the limit, he will be inviting evil fortune." (Chang Tsai, "Zhengmeng" ["Correcting Youthful Ignorance"], 1076)
"Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:
every success depends upon focusing the heart." (Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Masnavi, cca. 13th century)
"He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold." (Baltasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" 1647)
"Some are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of Fortune and to await her bidding; better those who push forward, who employ their enterprise, who on the wings of their worth and valor seek to embrace luck, and to effectively gain her favor." (Baltasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" 1647)
"The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see that it is in their interests to promote yours." (Jean de La Bruyère, "Les Caractères" ["Characters"), 1688)
"The cause of the bad and of the good fortune of men is the way in which their method of working fits the times." (Niccolò Machiavelli, "Discourse upon the First Ten Books of Livy" cca. 1513–17)
"You cannot tell whether a person is good or bad by his vicissitudes in life. Good and bad fortune are matters of fate." (Yamamoto Tsunetomo, "Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai", cca. 1716)
"Therever fortune clears a way, thither our ready footsteps stray." (Jules Verne, "Journey to the Center of the Earth", 1864)
"Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind." (Leonardo da Vinci, "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci", 1888)
"Because we all share this small planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. That is not just a dream, but a necessity. We are dependent on each other in so many ways, that we can no longer live in isolated communities and ignore what is happening outside those communities, and we must share the good fortune that we enjoy." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], [Nobel lecture] 1989)
"True friends share genuine closeness and remain friends irrespective of fluctuating fortunes." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], "The transformed mind: reflections on truth, love, and hapiness", 1999)
" To help us bring benefit to others through our words and actions, it is useful to cultivate an attitude of sympathetic joy in others' achievements and good fortune. This attitude is a powerful antidote against envy, which is not only a source of unnecessary suffering on the individual level but also an obstacle to our ability to reach out and engage with others." (Tenzin Gyatso [14th Dalai Lama], "Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World", 2011)
"Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing." (Sophocles)
"It is more easy to get a favor from fortune than to keep it." (Publilius Syrus)
"Ninja live in a protected wind. The wind runs directly into the flames, fans them, climbs to the heavens, and gathers great skills. The wind kami bestows honor and good fortune." (Masaaki Hatsumi)
"We must master our good fortune, or it will master us." (Publilius Syrus)
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