The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

The saying expresses a meritocratic view of fortune: what looks like “luck” (favorable winds and waves) tends to accompany, or be made to accompany, superior skill. In navigation the environment is indifferent, yet the best sailors read conditions, choose routes, and time decisions so that nature’s forces seem to aid them. More broadly, it suggests that competence creates its own advantages—preparation and judgment convert uncertainty into opportunity. The line is often used to argue that success is less a gift of chance than the product of ability, discipline, and strategic adaptation to circumstances.