The motto is used by the 6th Airborne Brigade (Poland). The proverb may be a rewording of a line by Democritus that 'boldness is the beginning of action, but fortune controls how it ends' ( Ancient Greek: Τόλμα πρήξιος αρχή, τύχη δε τέλεος κυρίη, romanized: Tólma préxios arché, túche de téleos kuríe). Louis Pasteur, the French microbiologist and chemist, made this remark: ' Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés', meaning 'In the fields of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind.' The Latin phrase Fortuna Eruditis Favet ('fortune favours the prepared mind') is also used. '') Pliny the Elder ultimately died during the expedition. '' ( ''Fortune', he said, 'favours the brave: head for Pomponianus. Pliny the Younger quotes his uncle, Pliny the Elder, as using the phrase Fortes fortuna iuvat when deciding to take his fleet and investigate the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, in the hope of helping his friend Pomponianus: ''Fortes' inquit 'fortuna iuvat: Pomponianum pete. Ovid further parodies the phrase at I.608 of his didactic work, Ars Amatoria, writing 'audentem Forsque Venusque iuvat' or 'Venus, like Fortune, favors the bold.' Fortuna refers to luck or its personification, a Roman goddess.Īnother version of the proverb, fortes Fortuna adiuvat, 'fortune favours the strong/brave', was used in Terence's 151 BC comedy play Phormio, line 203. This last form is used by Turnus, an antagonist in the Aeneid by Virgil.

Fortune favours the bold is the translation of a Latin proverb, which exists in several forms with slightly different wording but effectively identical meaning, such as audentes Fortuna iuvat, audentes Fortuna adiuvat, Fortuna audaces iuvat, and audentis Fortuna iuvat.

Fortune favors the brave matt damon