Before acting or refraining, weigh your luck. More depends on that than on noticing your temperament. If he is a fool who at forty applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he one who only then first applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it. For something is accomplished by just waiting to use it at the proper moment, since it has periods and offers opportunities—though one cannot calculate its path because it's steps are so irregular. When you find fortune favorable, stride boldly forward, for she favors the bold and, being a woman, the young. But if you have bad luck, withdraw so as not to redouble the influence of your unlucky star.

THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM BY BALTHASAR GRACIAN
TRANSLATED BY JOSEPH JACOBS 1892