"Fortune favours the bold", "Fortune favours the brave", "Fortune helps the brave", and "Fortune favours the strong" are common translations of a Latin proverb. The slogan has been used historically in the military in the Anglo-Saxon world, and it is used up to the present in the US Marines and on the coats of arms of individual families and clans.
Fortune favours the bold is the translation of a Latin proverb, which exists in several forms with slightly different wording, where Fortuna is the goddess of luck, such as
These Proverbs in turn descended from Fortes fortuna adiuvat. (literally: "fortune favours the strong") used in Terence's comedy play Phormio, line 203. It was cited by Cicero in the 1st century BCE as a vetus proverbium ("an old proverb").
The quote "Fortes Fortuna Juvat" is used by the Jydske Dragonregiment, or Jutish Dragoon Regiment, in the Royal Danish Army.
It is used as the motto for the British Army's Yorkshire Regiment having been previously used by one of the Yorkshire's antecedent regiments, the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding [33rd/76th Foot]).
The Latin version Audentes Fortuna Juvat is the motto of Clan MacKinnon and features on the clan crest.
It is the motto for Clan Turnbull.
It is used as the motto for the O'Flaherty family in Ireland and is also used on their coat of arms.
This is used as the motto for the Dickson family and is presented on their family crest.
The motto Fortuna Audaces Juvat was used by the Clevland family of Tapeley Park, Westleigh, Devon, in the 18th and 19th centuries, as seen with their armorials on several of the family's mural monuments in Westleigh Church.
The phrase was used as the motto of the Royal Air Force station based at East Fortune, in East Lothian. The base was operational in the First World War and between 1940 and 1947.