“Of Pride in thy Prosperity beware,
Vicissitudes of Fortune Constant are.”
John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic
Fab. LXII: Of the Gourd, and the Pine
The Fables of Aesop (2nd ed. 1668)
Polybius. The Histories of Polybius, trans. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh. London, New York: Macmillan and Co., 1889. Book I, Chapter 1
The Histories
“Of Pride in thy Prosperity beware,
Vicissitudes of Fortune Constant are.”
John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic
Fab. LXII: Of the Gourd, and the Pine
The Fables of Aesop (2nd ed. 1668)
William Godwin (1756–1836) English journalist, political philosopher and novelist
Book V, "Of Education"
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
“Such are the vicissitudes of our mortal lot: misfortune is born of prosperity, and good fortune of ill-luck.”
Habet has vices conditio mortalium, ut adversa ex secundis, ex adversis secunda nascantur.
Pliny the Younger (61–113) Roman writer
V.
Panegyricus
Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament
Vol. 1, Chap. 71.
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire: Volume 1 (1776)
Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet
Source: Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892), Urania in Act IV, sc. ii; p. 178.
Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797) African abolitionist
Chap. I
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789)
“Things ’twas hard to bear ’tis pleasant to recall.”
quae fuit durum pati, meminisse dulce est.
Seneca the Younger Hercules Furens
Hercules Furens (The Madness of Hercules), lines 656-657; (Amphitryon)
Alternate translation: Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember. (translator unknown).
Tragedies
“Learn fortitude and toil from me, my son,
Ache of true toil. Good fortune learn from others.”
Disce, puer, virtutem ex me verumque laborem,
Fortunam ex aliis.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XII, Lines 435–436 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
Ricky Gervais (1961) English comedian, actor, director, producer, musician, writer, and former radio presenter