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They make their fortune who are stout and wise,
Wit rules the heavens, discretion guides the skies.

— Torquato Tasso Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

Chè sovente addivien che 'l saggio e 'l forte
Fabbro a se stesso è di beata sorte.

Original text (Italian)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Canto X, stanza 20 (tr. Fairfax)

Topics

Luck

More quotes by Torquato Tasso

Gather the rose of love, while yet thou mayest,
Loving, be loved; embracing, be embraced.

Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

Under whose feet, subjected to his grace,
Sit nature, fortune, motion, time and place.

Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

For in a world so mutable and blind
it's often constancy to change one's mind.

Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

Lost is all the time that you don't spend in love.

She fair, he full of bashfulness and truth,
Loved much, hoped little, and desired nought.

Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

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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.

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

Horace Satires (-35)

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)

Attribution

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