The Books on the Family

...most excellent families. When I consider this matter—without leaning toward any other bias, and free and clear of every passion of the soul—and when I look within myself, O young men of the Alberti family, and behold how our own Alberti family has for so long resisted so much adversity with a most courageous spirit; and with what total reason and counsel our Alberti have known how to drive away and, with firm constancy, withstand our bitter misfortunes and the furious assaults of our unjust fates; I see then that fortune is often blamed by many without true cause. I perceive that many, having fallen into sinister circumstances through their own folly, blame fortune and complain of being tossed by her most turbulent waves, into which they, in their foolishness, cast themselves. And thus many inept people say that the power of another was the cause of their own errors.

But if anyone will investigate here with diligence what it is that greatly exalts and increases families, and what also maintains them in a sublime degree of honor and happiness, he will clearly see that men themselves are most often the cause of every good and every evil they experience. Certainly, he will never attribute so much authority to any external force that he would judge virtue virtue: from the Italian virtù, referring to human skill, merit, and effective action, rather than just moral goodness. to be worth less than fortune in the acquisition of praise, greatness, and fame. It is true: let the republics be examined, and let all the principalities of the past be kept in mind. It will be found that in order to acquire and multiply, and to maintain and preserve the majesty and glory already achieved, fortune was never worth more than the good and holy disciplines of living. And who doubts it? Just laws, virtuous principles, prudent counsel, strong and constant deeds, love for the homeland, faith, diligence, and the most disciplined and praised observances of the citizens were always able—either without fortune to earn and learn fame, or with fortune to greatly extend and propagate themselves toward glory—and to highly commend themselves to posterity and immortality. Fortune was favorable and prosperous to the Macedonians The ancient kingdom of Macedon, which became a world power under Philip II and Alexander the Great. for as long as they maintained the use of arms joined with a love of virtue and the pursuit of praise. It is true that after the death of Alexander the Great Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE), the conqueror of the Persian Empire.,