Daily Inspiration Quote by Terence

Luck is the oldest deus ex machina, and Terence knows it. "How often things occur by mere chance which we dared not even hope for" sounds like gratitude, but it’s also a sly admission about how life and comedy actually move: not by moral logic, not even by desire, but by the abrupt swivel of circumstance. The line carries that characteristic Roman comic shrug, a wry concession that human planning is mostly stage dressing.

Terence, adapting Greek New Comedy for Roman audiences, built plots out of misrecognitions, overheard conversations, and convenient arrivals. Chance isn’t just a theme; it’s a narrative engine. What makes the sentence work is its double pressure: "mere chance" diminishes the cause, while "dared not even hope" elevates the outcome. The speaker is caught between disbelief and relief, trying to make peace with a world that occasionally rewards you without asking you to deserve it. That quiet "dared" is doing heavy lifting, hinting at social risk: hoping too openly can invite disappointment, mockery, or, in a status-conscious society, accusations of overreaching.

The subtext is almost ethical in reverse. Instead of preaching virtue, Terence points to contingency as the hidden author of our fortunes. For a culture negotiating between rigid family authority and the messy realities of love, money, and reputation, this is both comforting and destabilizing. It lets characters (and audiences) exhale: the best outcomes sometimes arrive not because you earned them, but because the world, unpredictably, makes room for them.