Fortes fortuna adiuvat

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Portrait of Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder

Fortes fortuna adiuvat (or in its originally old Latin form: Fortis fortuna adiuvat ) is a Latin proverb .

It can be translated as "Fortune helps the brave".

It is used by Terence in Phormio (I, 4, 203) and referred to as an old proverb by Cicero in the Tusculanae disputationes (II, 4, 11). It is said to go back to the Greek poet Simonides von Keos , as Claudius Claudianus cites in his Epistola ad Probinum (Ep. 4,9): Fors iuvat audentes, Cei sententia vatis (“Happiness helps the brave, according to the saying of the poet from Keos "). According to other textual sources, however, the quote is “prisci sententia vatis” (“according to the poet from earlier times”). Virgil also quoted it similarly in the Aeneid (10, 284): “Audentis fortuna iuvat”, and Tibullus in his elegies (I, 2, 16): “Fortes adiuvat ipsa Venus” - “Venus himself helps those who venture”.

The saying is also the motto in the coat of arms of the ship USS Nicholson as well as in the modified form "Audentis Fortuna Iuvat" of the multinational Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) in Innsworth, England.

It is also the motto of the 2nd company of the logistics battalion 471 of the Bundeswehr and is shown there in the company coat of arms. The 3./PzBtl 241 in Kirchham near Pocking carried this motto on their company building. The saying was also used in the company coat of arms of the 2nd Jäger Company of Jägerbataillon 12 from Amstetten (Lower Austria) of the Austrian Armed Forces.

It is also the guiding principle of the German Federal Police Flying Group (and its squadrons). It is also engraved on the bottom of a Junkers pilot's watch specially designed for the Federal Police .

Trivia

The character John Wick of the film of the same name has this saying tattooed on his back.

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