FastSaying

Fortune is no real thing.
But men who cannot bear what comes to them
In Nature's way, give their own characters
The name of Fortune.


Menander

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whatever days fortune will give, count them
HORACE There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitt...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE girls
please give your
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lives
to
the young men
who
CHARLES BUKOWSKI What were good and evil, really, but stupid categories? Stupid categories
that restricted peopl...
RICHELLE MEAD Oh, the torment bred in the race,
the grinding scream of death
and the stroke that hits t...
AESCHYLUS A postcard. Neat handwriting fills the rectangle.

Half my days I cannot bear to touch you...
MICHAEL ONDAATJE It may not feel too classy, begging just to eat
But you know who does that?
Lassie, and s...
JOSS WHEDON Always having what we want
may not be the best good fortune
Health seems sweetest
aft...
HERACLITUS To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The s...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road.
Healthy, free, the world before me.
The l...
WALT WHITMAN Why I Cannot Relate

"What do you think of this piece?" Someone will ask
About some w...
KYLEE CARRIER To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slin...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE And I — my head oppressed by horror — said:
"Master, what is it that I hear? Who are
t...
DANTE ALIGHIERI I Keep Six Honest Serving Men ..."

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me a...
RUDYARD KIPLING Perhaps he would have no title or fortune to offer her, but he was determined to see her safe.
...
TESSA DARE Overheard on a Saltmarsh"

Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?

Green glass, gobl...
HAROLD MONRO Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance,
And toss them on the wheels of Chance.
JUVENAL Such is the world
that I can no longer
bear to say prayers,
for I am sick
of...
ALCAEUS OF MYTILENE, 612 BC Thank God for poverty
That makes and keeps us free,
That lets us go our unobtrusive way,
WILLIAM BLISS CARMAN "I cannot bear it!" said the pewter soldier. "I have shed pewter
tears! It is too melancholy! R...
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN NEVER GIVE UP
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too muc...
DALAI LAMA XIV This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes cha...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The Dragonfly Charm

Embrace The Magic of Nature & Life Will Be Filled with Good Fortu...
VIOLA SHIPMAN One man sees a riselka: his life forks there.
 Two men see a riselka: one of them shall die.<...
GUY GAVRIEL KAY GOD, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hand...
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway beautiful people to me, of which
t...
MARY OLIVER It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day

It will begin to happen
Again o...
شمس الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
in...
MARY OLIVER The people have a right supreme
To make their kings, for Kings are made for them.
All Empire i...
JOHN DRYDEN It is criminal to steal a purse,
daring to steal a fortune,
a mark of greatness to steal a cro...
FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER Wealth without real worthiness
Is no good for the neighbourhood;
But their proper mixture<...
SAPPHO I admire strength but I fall in love with vulnerability.
I admire strong people. People who sta...
DRISHTI BABLANI Style is the answer to everything.
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing
To do...
CHARLES BUKOWSKI At the end of the street was a large glass box with a female mannequin inside it, dressed as a gypsy...
NEIL GAIMAN Happiness

There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a pr...
JANE KENYON Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
a...
MARY OLIVER True words aren't eloquent;
eloquent words aren't true.
Wise men don't need to prove their...
LAO TZU Um, I don’t know your name but -”
“Knight,”
“Right, Mr. Knight-”
“No, K...
KRISTEN ASHLEY The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden<...
ALLEN GINSBERG But who are you?"

Percy—" I started to say. Then the skeletons turned around. "Gotta go...
RICK RIORDAN O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things,
That draws oblivion's curtains over kings;
Their ...
ANNE BRADSTREET Authors have odd relationships with their creations They owe their fame and fortune to their charact...
ANTHONY HOROWITZ Patience, though I have not
The thing that I require,
I must of force, God wot,
Forbear my...
SIR THOMAS WYATT He turned to me, mischief glinting in his eyes. “How
do they celebrate good fortune in Bharat...
ROSHANI CHOKSHI Your name?"The movements of the man's mouth didn't quite match what he was saying, so seeing him spe...
ANTHONY HOROWITZ What if dragons breathed bubbles
and purred when they cuddled
and giggled at chivalrous ...
RICHELLE E. GOODRICH Every group of friends has that one experience that, no matter where you are you carry it with you f...
DR. KARAN M PAI Annunciation

Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all every...
JOHN DONNE You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it...
T.S. ELIOT Everything I have become,
everything I will ever accomplish
cannot compare to my most
KAMAND KOJOURI It cannot be denied that outward accidents conduce much to fortune, favor, opportunity, death of oth...
FRANCIS BACON SR. Another's name my trail may bear,
But still I keep, in waste and wood.
My Joy because the ...
ARTHUR GUITERMAN Must, bid the Morn awake!
Sad Winter now declines,
Each bird doth choose a mate;
This da...
MICHAEL DRAYTON What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only ...
WILFRED OWEN What passing bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only...
WILFRED OWEN The Bear and the Maiden Fair


A bear there was, a bear, a bear!
All black and b...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
T...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Don't care what people say
Just follow your own way
Don't give up and use the chance
...
ENIGMA But Carroll's were more convoluted, and they struck me as funny in a new way:

1) Babies a...
STEVE MARTIN Abyssinias

"I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: A huge four-foote...
HENRY N. BEARD That’s a stupid name! Whirly-gig is much better, I think. Who in their right
mind would point...
NATHAN REESE MAHER He that commends me to mine own content
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
I to the wo...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will...
T.S. ELIOT All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name.

Remembered line from a long-
HUNTER S. THOMPSON Must, bid the Morn awake!
Sad Winter now declines,
Each bird doth choose a mate;
This day's...
MICHAEL DRAYTON The Scholars
"Bald heads forgetful of their sins,
Old, learned, respectable bald he...
W.B. YEATS ...But...to sing,
to dream, to smile, to walk, to be alone, be free,
with a voice that sti...
EDMOND ROSTAND So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years-
Twenty years largely wasted, the year...
T.S. ELIOT TRINA:
I'm tired of all the happy men who rule the world.
Their smile, their smile's their...
WILLIAM FINN They can award me with the greatest accolades
and reward me with the finest diamonds.
Th...
KAMAND KOJOURI TO what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer qui...
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY I roam the streets, silent and still,
I look for You, in each and everything.
I have come ...
SYED MURTAZA HAROON No one leaves this hidden treasure,
Feeling the same way they came,
They refer their frien...
CHARMAINE J FORDE In your hands

The dog, the donkey, surely they know
They are alive.
Who would ...
MARY OLIVER So that in the nature of man,
we find three principal causes of quarrel:

First, Comp...
THOMAS HOBBES Most of us have nicknames—annoying, endearing, embarrassing.

But what about your true n...
VERA NAZARIAN You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing do...
WILLIAM J. H. BOETCKER You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by wea...
WILLIAM J.H. BOETCKER Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time futur...
TS (THOMAS STEARNS) ELIOT Swamp Thing, in Hell: "Demon...How...could God...allow such a place?

Etrigan: Think you G...
ALAN MOORE No one leaves this hidden treasure,
Feeling the same way they came,
They always refer thei...
CHARMAINE J FORDE What thought or message would you put in a fortune cookie?
"Stop reading this. Eat the cookie a...
VERONICA ROTH On the late afternoon streets, everyone hurries along, going about their own business.

Wh...
VERA NAZARIAN This is a call to the living,
To those who refuse to make peace with evil,
With the sufferi...
ALGERNON D. BLACK When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when...
MARY OLIVER Girl, bite. Girl, devour. Girl, don't forgive.
Girl, stay angry. Girl, be selfish.
Girl, w...
CAITLYN SIEHL When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel ...
JALALUDDIN MEVLANA RUMI Cyrano: I can see him there---he grins---
He is looking at my nose---that skeleton
---What...
EDMOND ROSTAND SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain an...
W.H. AUDEN He has been known to devour men.”

“He’s a cannibal?” Cadmus asked in horror. SULARI GENTILL Glossa

Time goes by, time comes along,
All is old and all is new;
What is righ...
MIHAI EMINESCU the lost women

I need to know their names
those women I would have walked with,
LUCILLE CLIFTON Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals ...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steal...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steal...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
A farewell, and then forever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll ...
ROBERT BURNS Learn to bear bravely changes of fortune.
CLEOBULUS Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in ou...
AESCHYLUS I learned about life

from life itself,

love I learned in a single kiss
PABLO NERUDA

More Menander

No just person ever became quickly rich.
MENANDER All men have one refuge, a good friend, with whom you can weep and know that he does not smile.
MENANDER I count it happiness,
Ere we go quickly thither whence we came,
To gaze ungrieving on these ma...
MENANDER We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.
MENANDER Man must be prepared for every event of life, for there is nothing that is durable.
MENANDER Never ask the Gods for life set free from grief, but ask for courage that endureth long.
MENANDER He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor...
MENANDER It must be that evil communications corrupt good dispositions.
MENANDER Do not fight against Providence; nor bring more heavy weather to the storm. Face what is already the...
MENANDER How sweet is life, can we but choose with whom to live it: to live for oneself is no life.
MENANDER The school of hard knocks is an accelerated curriculum.
MENANDER I am a man: nothing human is foreign to me.
MENANDER The person who has the will to undergo all labor may win any goal.
MENANDER Whom the gods love die young.
MENANDER Nay, Georias, I call him the bravest man,
Who knows to suffer the most injuries
With patience....
MENANDER Let bravery be thy choice, but not bravado.
MENANDER He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
MENANDER Even God lends a hand to honest boldness.
MENANDER The spoken word is man's physician in grief. For this alone has soothing charms for the soul.
MENANDER It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.
MENANDER Nothing is more useful than silence.
MENANDER I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.
MENANDER Deus ex machina [A god from the machine]
MENANDER Whom the gods love dies young.
MENANDER The man who runs may fight again.
MENANDER Riches cover a multitude of woes.
MENANDER The sword the body wounds, sharp words the mind.
MENANDER Culture makes all men gentle.
MENANDER The character of a man is known from his conversations.
MENANDER Bad company corrupts good character.
MENANDER 'Know thyself' is a good saying, but not in all situations. In many it is better to say '...
MENANDER The chief beginning of evil is goodness in excess.
MENANDER Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil.
MENANDER Wer davonläuft kann später kämpfen.
MENANDER He whom the gods love dies young.
MENANDER No man alive can say, "This shall not happen to me
MENANDER ATHENS This "Know Yourself" is a silly proverb in some ways; To know the man next door is a much more usef...
MENANDER ATHENS The workman still is greater than his work
MENANDER ATHENS The school of hard knocks is an accelerated curriculum
MENANDER ATHENS He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
MENANDER OF ATHENS Nothing is more useful than silence.
MENANDER OF ATHENS The workman still is greater than his work
MENANDER OF ATHENS There is but one genuine love-potion - consideration.
MENANDER OF ATHENS It must be that evil communications corrupt good dispositions.
MENANDER OF ATHENS