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Such are the vicissitudes of our mortal lot: misfortune is born of prosperity, and good fortune of ill-luck.

— Pliny the Younger

Habet has vices conditio mortalium, ut adversa ex secundis, ex adversis secunda nascantur.

Original text (Latin)

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Luck

More quotes by Pliny the Younger

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

Never do a thing concerning the rectitude of which you are in doubt.

Oblige people never so often, and, if you deny them on a single point, they remember nothing but that refusal.

A certain large collective wisdom resides in a crowd, as such; and men whose individual judgement is defective are excellent judges when grouped together.

There is certainly no truth in the popular belief, that a man's will is the mirror of his character.

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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)

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: Pliny the Younger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.