The footsteps of fortune are slippery.

Alas! the slippery nature of tender youth. [ Claudianus ]

'Tis a stern and a startling thing to think
How often mortality stands on the brink
Of its grave without any misgiving;
And yet in this slippery world of strife,
In the stir of human bustle so rife.
There are daily sounds to tell us that Life
Is dying, and Death is living! [ Hood ]

Let wealth come in by comely thrift,
And not by any sordid shift;
It is haste makes waste;
Extremes have still their fault.
Who gripes too hard the dry and slippery sand,
Holds none at all, or little, in his hand. [ Herrick ]

The slippery tops of human state, the gilded pinnacles of fate. [ Cowley ]

That is but a slippery happiness that fortune can give and fortune can take away. [ Proverb ]

Everything ought to lead to good sense; but in order to attain to it, the road is slippery and difficult to walk in. [ Boileau ]

What money creates, money preserves: if thy wealth decays, thy honor dies; it is but a slippery happiness which fortunes can give, and frowns can take: and not worth the owning which a night's fire can melt, or a rough sea can drown. [ Quarles ]