“From history's examples we conclude,
And modern instances teach us the same:
Good follows Evil, Evil follows Good,
Shame ends in glory, glory ends in shame.
Thus it is evident that no man should
Put trust in victories or wealth or fame,
Nor yet despair if Fortune is adverse:
She turns her wheel for better, as for worse.”
Si vede per gli esempi di che piene
Sono l'antiche e le moderne istorie,
Che 'l ben va dietro al male, e 'l male al bene,
E fin son l'un de l'altro e biasmi e glorie;
E che fidarsi a l'uom non si conviene
In suo tesor, suo regno e sue vittorie,
Né disperarsi per Fortuna avversa,
Che sempre la sua ruota in giro versa.
Canto XLV, stanza 4 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
Original
Si vede per gli esempi di che piene Sono l'antiche e le moderne istorie, Che 'l ben va dietro al male, e 'l male al bene, E fin son l'un de l'altro e biasmi e glorie; E che fidarsi a l'uom non si conviene In suo tesor, suo regno e sue vittorie, Né disperarsi per Fortuna avversa, Che sempre la sua ruota in giro versa.
Orlando Furioso (1532)
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Ludovico Ariosto 97
Italian poet 1474–1533Related quotes
“A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.”
537-539
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I
Context: A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God's sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.
Sir Thomas Browne, as quoted by The Pleasures of Life (1891), by John Lubbock, p. 11
Misattributed
“She had not yet decided whether to use her power for good… or for evil.”
“When Fame, O monarch! good or evil tells,
Evil or good beyond the truth she swells.”
Book XXXVIII, line 327
Translations, Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)
"Jerusalem", Ch. 20, p. 249-50
Report to Greco (1965)
Context: Sodom and Gomorrah reclined along the riverbank like two whores kissing each other. Men copulated with other men, women with other women, men with mares, women with bulls. They ate and overate from the Tree of Life; they ate and overate from the Tree of Knowledge. Smashing their sacred statues, they saw that they were filled with air. Coming very, very close to God, they said, "This God is not the father of Fear, he is the son of Fear," and they lost their fear. On the four gates to the city they wrote in large yellow letters, THERE IS NO GOD HERE. What does There is no God mean? It means there is no bridle on our instincts, no reward for good or punishment for evil, no virtue, shame, or justice — that we are wolves and she-wolves in heat.
Speech on the Copyright Bill (5 February 1841)
“Avoid shame, but do not seek glory, — nothing so expensive as glory.”
Vol. I, ch. 4
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
Source: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
Source: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946), p. 124; Essay "Politics as a vocation"
Context: The problem — the experience of the irrationality of the world — has been the driving force of all religious evolution. The Indian doctrine of karma, Persian dualism, the doctrine of original sin, predestination and the deus absconditus, all these have grown out of this experience. Also the early Christians knew full well the world is governed by demons and that he who lets himself in for politics, that is, for power and force as means, contracts with diabolical powers and for his action it is not true that good can follow only from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true. Anyone who fails to see this is, indeed, a political infant.