Fortune

And Apelles, beholding it, rejoiced at this work of Fortune wrought in his despair of art, and completed the picture not through art but through Fortune.

The reproaches that men bring against Fortune I, for my part, would count the greatest of encomia upon her.

— Most unjustly, it seems to me, does the multitude bring charges against Fortune.

By the sacred power of Asita, of Kaśyapa, and of Gaya — like female kin binding an inner treasure-sack, I bind up your good fortune.

I take hold of your good fortune, as a garland upon the head.

Let Fortune roar toward me as a bull roars at a lowing cow.

Thus the time for action is wasted in preparation, but the opportunities of fortune wait not for our dilatoriness and reluctance.

Wherever, I believe, we send out a force composed partly or wholly of our citizens, there the gods are gracious and fortune fights on our side;

If anything happened to him, or if Fortune, which always cares for us better than we care for ourselves, should bring that result about, remember that you must be on the spot if you want to take advantage of the general confusion and to control the situation at your pleasure;

And when Fortune, as irresistible as she was unkind, decided as she pleased, and not according to justice, the struggle for the liberty of Greece in which you engaged, not even in the times that followed did I retreat from my loyalty toward you, nor did I bargain for anything in place of it, no man’s favour, no hopes of preferment, nor wealth, nor power, nor personal safety.

Now, therefore, since Alexander is dead, Fortune is seeking some people with whom to co-operate, and you ought to become her choice.

Since, however, a just Fortune—thanks be to her—prevailing over the unjust, has bestowed upon you the opportunity of deliberating twice on the same questions, no irremediable decree concerning my case having been passed, save me, men of Athens, and vote a verdict worthy both of your own selves and of me.

For, as I think, Fortune, scorning base men and wishing to arouse the minds of the good, at the very outset made your nature beautiful, not for a life of pleasure, to be beguiled thereto, but serviceable for a virtuous life, to have happiness therein.

As for these two kinds of qualities, natural and acquired, Fortune has so generously blessed you with nature’s gifts that you consistently enjoy distinction and admiration, and the other kind you are bringing to such perfection through your own diligence that no fair-minded person could have fault to find with you.

For while other men are assumed to be mean-spirited because they are gentle and to be arrogant because they are dignified, and are thought overbearing because they are manly, and stupid because they keep quiet, Fortune in your case has taken qualities so mutually contradictory and caused them all to be properly harmonized, as if fulfilling a prayer or wishing to set an example for others, but not …

also that Evagoras had unsurpassed natural ability and that Fortune was fighting with him as an ally.

he was proud, not of successes that were due to Fortune, but of those that came about through his own efforts:

Such ancestors Fortune gave to him as to no other man, unless it has been one sprung from the same stock, and so greatly in body and mind did he excel others that he was worthy to hold sway over not only Salamis but the whole of Asia also: