God helps those who help themselves

Meaning that God only helps those who show some initiative. It is an old Greek proverb, and therefore originally appeared in the form of 'the gods help those who help themselves'. It is first found in Aesop’s fable Hercules and the Wagoner c. 550 BC. The same proverb is also mentioned in the later works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. More latterly, it appears in George Herbert’s Jacula Prudentum (1640) and Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac (1733).