“Fortune is lavish with her favors, but not to be depended on. Nature on the other hand is self-sufficing, and therefore with her feebler but trustworthy [resources] she wins the greater [meed] of hope.”

—  Democritus

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Fortune is lavish with her favors, but not to be depended on. Nature on the other hand is self-sufficing, and therefore…" by Democritus?
Democritus photo
Democritus 81
Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of t…

Related quotes

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“When Fortune is on our side, popular favor bears her company.”

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 275
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

Abraham Lincoln photo

“In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, Speech on the Dred Scott Decision (1857)
Context: There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope, upon the chances of being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He therefore clings to this hope, as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for lugging it in from the opposition to the Dred Scott decision. He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence includes ALL men, black as well as white; and forth-with he boldly denies that it includes negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it does, do so only because they want to vote, and eat, and sleep, and marry with negroes! He will have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now I protest against that counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either, I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others.

Markus Zusak photo
Aristotle photo
Kate Chopin photo

“Fortune favors the brave," I told her. It also kills the stupid, but I decided to keep that fact to myself.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“[Guido] Oh, my Ianthe, I live but in you,
And I will win thee, through each obstacle
By tyranny of fortune raised, my own,
My best heart's treasure! (he snatches her hand)
[Manfred] Wild fool! she is your sister!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

(12th April 1823) Dramatic Scene. Ianthe — Guido — Manfred.
(19th April 1823) Fragments see The Improvisatrice (1824) The Oak
The London Literary Gazette, 1823

Related topics