fickle fortune

fickle fortune

Capricious fate. The alliteration of this phrase has long appealed to writers, and the idea behind it is even older. The expression appeared in the sixteenth century, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (3.5)—“O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle”—and elsewhere. Benjamin Franklin also used it: “Fortune is as fickle as she’s fair” (Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1749). Laugh-In, a popular television show of the 1960s and 1970s, used a similar expression, the fickle finger of fate, in a mock talent contest (“Who knows when the fickle finger of fate may beckon you to stardom?”), and issued a mock prize to the winner, the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award. According to Eric Partridge, “f——d by the fickle finger of fate” was Canadian armed forces slang in the 1930s for being fouled up in some way, and this probably was the source of the Laugh-In usage. See also wheel of fortune.
See also: fickle, fortune
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • great minds
  • great minds think alike
  • long time, no hear
  • phrase
  • coin a phrase
  • (as) sure as eggs (is eggs)
  • a penny for them
  • get thee behind me
  • coin a phrase, to
  • be twiddling (one's) thumbs
References in periodicals archive
The Briton needs no reminding of just how fickle fortune can be as he returns to the steamy circuit where his 2016 title hopes suffered a blow that ultimately proved too great to overcome.
On the track it might be gladiatorial, but the humans behind the horses know how fickle fortune is.
#$ EXETER: 1.05 American Legend, 1.35 GODSMEJUDGE (NAP), 2.05 Morestead, 2.35 Kandari, 3.05 Bygones Sovereign, 3.35 Sahrati NAVAN: 12.25 Torn Asunder, 12.55 Seefood, 1.25 Don Cossack, 1.55 Vapiano, 2.25 Start Me Up, 2.55 Alderwood, 3.25 Fickle Fortune DOUBLE: Godsmejudge and American Legend
Her last performance of the run was just a few hours away, and Munger would be saying goodbye to the bed in which she opened the show in a morning-after menage a trois with a modern-dress (or, rather, undress) Roman emperor Scipio and fickle Fortune. She was the "good girl," and even clad in nothing but a wispy slip she projected a winning wholesomeness, Offstage, though, not even that bowl of soup could undermine her nonchalant glamour.
Ben de Haan, a former National-winning jockey on Corbiere in 1983, has trained Native Gallery for the John Smith's Daily Mirror Punters Club Handicap Hurdle (4.50) while the closing John Smith's Mares' Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race (5.25) can go to Noel Meade's Fickle Fortune.
At the focus of McKeown's investigation lies Bielke's combined stable/library/ armoury--720 square meters of splendid pastimes for an elderly count, reflecting on the pranks of Fickle Fortune.
Talking of Wolves, it was amusing to see their former physio Paul Darby turn his talents to a force greater than the run of fickle fortune that has kept top flight football from Molineux for 18 years.
Indeed, Elizabeth uses the bulk of the poem to assert her independence and power: "It passeth fickle Fortune's power and skill / To force my heart to think thee any ill"; "No, no, my Pug, though Fortune were no t blind, I Assure thyself she could not rule my mind'; "Ne chose I thee by fickle Fortune's rede / Ne she shall force me alter with such speed" (all the emphases mine).
Writings that describe the popular myths and "ghosts" associated with "la Greve" include Challamel, Les Revenants de la Place de Greve; Christine Faber, Fickle Fortune: A Story of the Place de Greve (New York, 1878); Edouard Tricotel, Claude le Petit, sa fin tragique en place de Greve, a Paris et ses ouvrages (Paris, 1863); and Andre Rigaud, Paris, ses rues et ses fantomes: la vraie cour des Miracles (Paris, 1972).
In the complex struggle between Everton's clutch of left-backs to become Leighton Baines' permanent stand-in fickle fortune may have handed Oviedo another blow.
But Gerrard is also aware how fickle fortune is and how fragile confidence in the England team can be.
Noel Meade-trained stablemate Fickle Fortune has also been ruled out for the season after twisting a joint.
Noel Meade looks to have excellent prospects of an opening race double and his Fickle Fortune is hard to oppose in the maiden hurdle.
A 24-length winner of a bumper at Naas on his first run last season, Un Atout made an impressive hurdling debut at Navan in December when easily accounting for Fickle Fortune, and trainer Willie Mullins believes his five-year-old has enough pace to make a real name for himself over two miles.
He found only Shotgun Paddy too strong at Thurles in February and before that he ran well to finish third to Fickle Fortune at Down Royal.