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Thus, where'er the drift of hazard
Seems most unrestrained to flow,
Chance herself is reined and bitted,
And the curb of law doth know.

— Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

Sic quae permissis fluitare videtur habenis
Fors patitur frenos ipsaque lege meat.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Poem I, lines 11-12; translation by H. R. James

More quotes by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

In every adversity of fortune, to have been happy is the most unhappy kind of misfortune.

If you would give every man as he deserves, then love the good and pity those who are evil.

I see how happiness and misery lie inseparably in the deserts of good and bad men.

Wherefore not without cause has one of your own followers asked, "If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good?"

Nothing is miserable but what is thought so, and contrariwise, every estate is happy if he that bears it be content.

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Attribution

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