"No modest man ever did or ever will make a fortune"
- Mary Wortley Montagu
About this Quote
In this quote, Mary Wortley Montagu is recommending that a genuinely modest and modest person will never be able to achieve terrific wealth or success. She thinks that in order to make a fortune, one must possess a specific level of aspiration and self-promotion, which breaks the qualities of modesty and humbleness. Montagu is indicating that those who are too modest and self-effacing will not have the drive or determination to pursue wealth and therefore will never achieve it. This quote highlights the idea that in order to achieve success, one must have a particular level of self-confidence and assertiveness.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures"
"Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected"
