“One does not attain everything he wishes for.
Winds blow counter to what the ships desire.”
Al-Mutanabbi (915–965) Arabic poet from the Abbasid era
From the poem Bima At-Taʿallulu http://www.almotanabbi.com/poemPage.do?poemId=272
“When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
Letter LXXI: On the supreme good, line 3
Alternate translation: If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. (translator unknown).
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius)
Context: Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
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Do you have more details about the quote "When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind." by Seneca the Younger?
Seneca the Younger225
Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist -4–65 BCRelated quotes
“If one does not know to which port is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic
A forsaken Garden.
Undated
L. Frank Baum book Tik-Tok of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz, Ch. 7 : Polychrome's Pitiful Plight
Plate on the back of Tik-Tok
Later Oz novels
“You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Subterranean Homesick Blues
Robert Louis Stevenson book A Child's Garden of Verses
Windy Nights, st. 1.
A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
The Analects, The Doctrine of the Mean
Context: It is the way of the superior man to prefer the concealment of his virtue, while it daily becomes more illustrious, and it is the way of the mean man to seek notoriety, while he daily goes more and more to ruin. It is characteristic of the superior man, appearing insipid, yet never to produce satiety; while showing a simple negligence, yet to have his accomplishments recognized; while seemingly plain, yet to be discriminating. He knows how what is distant lies in what is near. He knows where the wind proceeds from. He knows how what is minute becomes manifested. Such a one, we may be sure, will enter into virtue.
“Any man can fart in a closed room and say that he commands the wind”
Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies
Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies
