Archive

Quotes

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.

—Joan Didion, 2005

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

—E.B. White, 1944

There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate: when he can’t afford it, and when he can.

—Mark Twain, 1897

It is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear. 

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

Good fortune is light as a feather, but nobody knows how to hold it up. Misfortune is heavy as the earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of its way.

—Zhuangzi, c. 300 BC

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

We do not suffer by accident. 

—Jane Austen, 1813

To hold a throne is luck; to bestow it, virtue.

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1610

Luck, in the great game of war, is undoubtedly lord of all.

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899