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He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.

— Diogenes Laërtius The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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More quotes by Diogenes Laërtius

Virtue is harmony, and health, and universal good, and God; on which account everything owes its existence and consistency to harmony.

Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, "Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue."

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words.

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

He used to define justice as "a virtue of the soul distributing that which each person deserved."

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (200)

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

Louis Pasteur

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

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1601)

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)

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