“Fortune favours the brave.”
Fortis fortuna adiuvat.
Variant translation: Fortune assists the brave.
Act I, scene 4, line 25 (203).
Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, Book X, line 284: "Audentes fortuna iuvat."
Phormio
“Fortune favours the brave.”
Attributed by Pliny the Younger to his uncle during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in which the Elder died <br class="br">Quoted in [Pliny, translated by William Melmoth, Letters of Pliny, c.100 CE, eBook, 1927, Bibliobytes, Hoboken, NJ, English, ISBN 0585049971, LXV, to Tacitus http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#link2H_4_0065, p. 48, Here he stopped to consider whether he should turn back again; to which the pilot advising him, "Fortune", said he, "favours the brave; steer to where Pomponianus is."] <br class="br">Commonly quoted as "Fortune favours the bold".
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Pliny the Elder31
Roman military commander and writer 23–79Related quotes
“1599. Fortune favours Fools.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“Fortune is given to brave men.”
Fortibus est fortuna viris data.
Ennius (-239–-169 BC) Roman writer
As quoted by Macrobius in Saturnalia, Book VI, Chapter I
“The result showed that fortune helps the brave.”
Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian
Book VIII, sec. 29
History of Rome
“So live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
The origin of this quote is often misattributed to Cicero; however, it is from Line 135-136 of Book 2, Satire 2 by Horace, "Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus." The English translation that most closely matches the one misrepresented as Cicero's is from a collection of Horace's prose written by E. C. Wickham, "So live, my boys, as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts."
Misattributed
“So live, my boys, as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.”
Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus
Book II, Satire II, Line 135-136 (trans. E. C. Wickham)
Satires (c. 35 BC and 30 BC)
“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”
William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
“To Fortune's forelock Charles knew how to cling
When favourable to him her face she showed.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Che ben pigliar nel crin la buona sorte
Carlo sapea, quando volgea la faccia.
Canto XVIII, stanza 161 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 4.