Topic

Fortune

Fortune and preparation have been arguing since antiquity, and this collection does not resolve it. Vergil's fortune-sides-with-the-bold is the classical formulation: the passive wait while the daring receive. Edison's no-accidents aphorism is the modern version applied to invention: invention requires preparation so complete that luck plays no visible role. But Twain places fortune in the theological register — what we have, we have by the fortune of God, not by our own deserving. Shakespeare on pride falling with fortunes is the psychological observation: character is revealed when circumstances change. The anonymous proverb — fortune doesn't change a man, it only unmasks him — is a sharper version of the same insight. Rogers on happiness in different temporal registers (nap, fishing, laughter, eating, songs) gives fortune an entirely different scale: the small daily forgivings that accumulate into a life. What the collection suggests is that fortune is real — it cannot be entirely manufactured by preparation — but that preparation determines what you do when it arrives.