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O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?

— Horace Satires (-35)

Heu, Fortuna, quis est crudelior in nos
Te deus? Ut semper gaudes illudere rebus Humanis!

Original text (Latin)

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More quotes by Horace

To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.

Epistles (-20)

He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure, by delighting and instructing the reader at the same time.

Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)

What odds does it make to the man who lives within Nature's bounds, whether he ploughs a hundred acres or a thousand?

Satires (-35)

The mountains will be in labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be brought forth.

Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)

He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!

Epistles (-20)

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In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.

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Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1601)

Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.

Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

Most coincidences are simply chance events that turn out to be far more probable than many people imagine.

Ivars Peterson The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Horace (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.