“Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act.”
Fragment 288. (Plumptre's translation, as cited in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 1906)
Variant: Heaven never helps the man who will not act.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Sophocles 68
ancient Greek tragedian -496–-406 BCRelated quotes
“Ah! who may hope, when Heaven hath Help deni'd!”
The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (2nd ed. 1654), Virgil's Æneis
“Then let him swear he ne'er the lady knew,
And did with her as men with women do.”
Book XIX
Homer His Iliads Translated (1660)
“Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.”
Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera.
Book VI (1668), fable 17.
Fables (1668–1679)
“There's reason good, that you good laws should make:
Men's manners ne'er were viler, for your sake.”
XXIV, To The Parliament, lines 1-2
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio (1616), Epigrams
Speech at Pointe du Hoc on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/60684a.htm (6 June 1984)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
“Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are.”
"The Ceremony of Farewell"
The Enigma of Arrival (1987)
Context: Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are. But history, like sanctity, can reside in the heart; it is enough that there is something there.
Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. I : Self-Help — National and Individual; earlier variant of the proverb quoted: God helps them who help themselves; recorded in Jacula Prudentum (1651) by George Herbert
Education, p. 57, c 1903, 1952, The Ellen G. White Publications; Pacific Press Publishing Association.