Change of fortune is the lot of life.

Understand the thought

Meaning in plain English

Circumstances and outcomes can change over time. Avoid treating either present success or present difficulty as a permanent description of what your life must be.

What the words are saying

The saying presents change as part of living, with fortune standing for the conditions or outcomes a person encounters. It can temper overconfidence in a favourable period and leave room for possibility in a difficult one. It does not promise that every problem will resolve or that success must end in disaster. Some circumstances endure and require sustained help or action. The practical value is to keep assessing the situation rather than making a fixed identity out of one result. What is available now may differ from what was available earlier, and a plan can be reconsidered when that difference becomes clear.

Everyday example

A group whose first event attracted little interest changes its format after new members arrive, instead of treating the first result as proof that every future attempt must fail.

When to use it

Use it when one present outcome is being treated as an unchangeable future.

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Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.