Che dona e tolle ogn'altro ben Fortuna;
Sol in virtù non ha possanza alcuna.
Canto III, stanza 37 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom
La virtud es cosa de veras, todo lo demás de burlas. La capacidad y grandeza se ha de medir por la virtud, no por la fortuna. Ella sola se basta a sí misma. Vivo el hombre, le haze amable; y muerto, memorable.
Maxim 300 (p. 168)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)
“Virtue has her heroes too
As well as Fame and Fortune.”
Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein
Act I, sc. vii
Wallenstein (1798), Part II - Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein)
“So beautiful and fortunate
You're the one who hates to love
But he's the one who loves to hate.”
Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter
Love For Tender
Song lyrics, Get Happy!! (1980)
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English writer
Epode, lines 1-4
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio (1616), The Forest
“All mortals are equal; it is not their birth,
But virtue itself that makes the difference.”
Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
Les mortels sont égaux; ce n'est pas la naissance,<br>C'est la seule vertu qui fait la différence. <br class="br">Ériphyle Act II, scene I (1732); these lines were also later used in Voltaire's Mahomet, Act I, scene IV (1741) <br class="br">Variant translations: <br class="br">Men are equal; it is not birth, it is virtue alone that makes them differ. <br class="br">As quoted in Beautiful Thoughts from French and Italian Authors (1866) edited by Craufurd Tait Ramage, p. 363 https://books.google.com/books?id=nDErAAAAYAAJ <br class="br">Men are equal; it is not birth<br>But virtue that makes the difference <br class="br">Citas
“Reason is immortal, all else mortal.”
Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher
As quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Sect. 30, as translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1925); also in The Demon and the Quantum: From the Pythagorean Mystics to Maxwell's Demon (2007) by Robert J. Scully, Marlan O. Scully, p. 11
“This is to be mortal, And seek the things beyond mortality.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
“Life on earth is a hand-to-hand mortal combat… between the law of love and the law of hate.”
José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader
Letter (1881), as quoted in The Conscience of Worms and the Cowardice of Lions : Cuban Politics and Culture in an American Context (1993) by Irving Louis Horowit, p. 11
