Quotes & Sayings About Fortuna

Oh, Fortuna, you capricious sprite! — John Kennedy Toole

So we see that even when Fortuna spins us downward, the wheel sometimes halts for a moment and we find ourselves in a good, small cycle within a larger bad cycle. The universe, of course, is based upon the principle of the circle within the circle. At the moment, I am in an inner circle. Of course, smaller circles within this circle are also possible. — John Kennedy Toole

Seneca's version of that Stoicism is antifragility from fate. No downside from Lady Fortuna, plenty of upside. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In the natural order men are all equal and their common calling is that of manhood, so that a well-educated man cannot fail to do well in that calling and those related to it. It matters little to me whether my pupil is intended for the army, the church, or the law. Before his parents chose a calling for him nature called him to be a man. Life is the trade I would teach him. When he leaves me, I grant you, he will be neither a magistrate, a soldier, nor a priest; he will be a man. All that becomes a man he will learn as quickly as another. In vain will fate change his station, he will always be in his right place. "Occupavi te, fortuna, atque cepi; omnes-que aditus tuos interclusi, ut ad me aspirare non posses. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Audentes fortuna iuvat. Fortune favors the bold. — Wynne Channing

Elections only happen in two ways," Reyna said. "Either the legion raises someone on a shield after a major success on the battlefield-and we haven't had any major battles-or we hold a ballot on the evening of June 24, at the Feast of Fortuna. That's in five days."
Percy frowned. "You have a feast for tuna? — Rick Riordan

Fortes fortuna adiuvat, Marcello had said to his men. Fortune favors the brave, the bold. — Lisa Tawn Bergren

The most wretched fortune is safe; for there is no fear of anything worse.
[Lat., Fortuna miserrima tuta est:
Nam timor eventus deterioris abest.] — Ovid

Though you strut proud of your money, yet fortune has not changed your birth.
[Lat., Licet superbus ambules pecuniae,
Fortuna non mutat genus.] — Horace

Audaces fortuna iuvat (latin)- Fortune favors the bold. — Virgil

Alice must already have known, even back then, when she first saw Fortune, when she was, what, nine or ten, that she would try and hitch a lift on the wheel, too, as soon as she possibly could. She must already have been thinking out how. But she couldn't have guessed how soon her chance would come. — Vanora Bennett

Fortuna, that vicious slut. — John Kennedy Toole

Song of elli (old age)
What is plucked will grow again,
What is slain lives on,
What is stolen will remain
What is gone is gone ...
What is sea-born dies on land,
Soft is trod upon.
What is given burns the hand -
What is gone is gone ...
Here is there, and high is low;
All may be undone.
What is true, no two men know -
What is gone is gone ...
Who has choices need not choose.
We must, who have none.
We can love but what we lose -
What is gone is gone. — Peter S. Beagle

A good disposition I far prefer to gold; for gold is the gift of fortune; goodness of disposition is the gift of nature. I prefer much rather to be called good than fortunate.
[Lat., Bono ingenio me esse ornatam, quam auto multo mavolo.
Aurum fortuna invenitur, natura ingenium donum.
Bonam ego, quam beatam me esse nimio dici mavolo. — Plautus

This is the goddess Fortuna. She brought luck - or took it away. But you'd put up with whatever she did. Because when she decided to favour you, it made everything worthwhile — Jacqueline Rayner

Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined the Gryffindors streaming up the marble staircase and, very tired now, along more corridors, up more and more stairs, to the hidden entrance to Gryffindor Tower. A large portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress asked them, "Password?" "Coming through, coming through!" Percy called from behind the crowd. "The new password's 'Fortuna Major'!" "Oh no," said Neville Longbottom sadly. He always had trouble remembering the passwords. — J.K. Rowling

Fortune moulds and circumscribes human affairs as she pleases.
[Lat., Fortuna humana fingit artatque ut lubet.] — Plautus

Qui jacet in terra non habet unde cadat. In me consumpsit vires fortuna nocendo, Nil superest ut iam possit obesse magis." (loosely translated: "He who lies on the ground can fall no farther. In me, Fortune has exhausted her power of hurting; nothing remains that can harm me anymore.") — Thomas Kyd

Lupa and her wolves are trying to slow them down, but this force is too strong even for them. The enemy will be here soon - by the Feast of Fortuna — Rick Riordan

Adventure comes with no guarantees or promises. Risk and reward are conjoined twins - and that's why my favorite piece of advice needs translation but no disclaimers: Fortes fortuna juvat. 'Fortune favors the brave,' the ancient Roman dramatist Terrence declared. In other words, there are many good reasons not to toss your life up in the air and see how it lands. Just don't let fear be one of them. — Mary South

But assuredly Fortune rules in all things; she raised to eminence or buries in oblivion everything from caprice rather than from well-regulated principle.
[Lat., Sed profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur; ea res cunctas ex lubidine magis, quam ex vero, celebrat, obscuratque.] — Sallust

The evil genius bent upon wrecking my life had not taken in account one thing: a man crushed and utterly wretched cares less for himself than a happy one. In presence of that indifference fate becomes more or less powerless. I was and am still in that frame of mind that, if angry Fortuna came to me in person, and said: "Go to perdition," I should reply calmly: "Be it so," - not out of sorrow for the loss of Aniela, but from mere indifference to everything within or without me. This — Henryk Sienkiewicz

The only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behavior. Good luck. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Fortuna likes to find a crowd and follow it. — Mason Cooley

When you really want something, when you lust, seek, desire, await, anticipate or expect, when you sit in front of the TV after the late news twirling a plastic spoon in a bowl of lukewarm skim milk and saturated puffs of Special K, praying for nine or so hours to pass so that you can check the morning mail to see if the college accepted, the one-night stand wrote, the tax refund arrived or Publisher's Clearing House made you the winner of a dream house in Wisconsin, when you're really looking forward to something, that's when Fortuna dispatches a couple of her handmaidens to drop a load of shit on you. — Martin Fillmore Clark

The fashions of human affairs are brief and changeable, and fortune never remains long indulgent.
[Lat., Breves et mutabiles vices rerum sunt, et fortuna nunquam simpliciter indulget.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Still, if I was really relying on luck, I might as well roll the dice. I stood up, trying to remember the name of the old Roman goddess of chance - Fortuna? It didn't matter. I was quite sure she only spoke Latin, and I didn't. I — Jeff Lindsay

Fortuna smiles and frowns according to a timetable surprising even to herself. — Mason Cooley

[Lord Horror] was so unique and radical, I expected to go to prison for it. I always thought that if you wrote a truly dangerous book -- something dangerous would happen to you. Which is one reason there are so few really dangerous books around. Publishers play at promoting dangerous books, whether they're Serpent's Tail or Penguin. All you get is a book vetted by committee, never anything radically imaginative or offensive that will take your fucking head off. Ironically, I think it would do other authors a power of good if they had to account for their books by going to prison -- there are far too many bad books being published! — David Britton

Ready over there, Goblin?" I ask Sevro over the com. "Cacatne ursus in silvis?" Does a bear shit in the woods? The ship spins and shudders. More sirens howl. "Latin, now?" "Audentes fortuna juvat," Sevro chuckles. "Fortune favors the bold? You deserve to die if that's really going to be the last thing you say in this life." "Yes? Well, you may suck my - " My — Pierce Brown

The Feast of Fortuna had nothing to do with tuna, which was fine with Percy. — Rick Riordan

When Fortuna spins you downward, go out to a movie and get more out of life. — John Kennedy Toole

Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa Fortuna."
["Generally common sense is rare in that (higher) rank."] — Juvenal

Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel,' Ignatius belched, 'Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity. — John Kennedy Toole