Archive

Quotes

Casting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BC

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886

’Tis not a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at tables?

—Thomas Browne, 1642

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

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

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899

You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.

—Cormac McCarthy, 2005

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.

—Calvin Coolidge, 1932

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

—E.B. White, 1944

We do not suffer by accident. 

—Jane Austen, 1813

To put one’s trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.

—Samuel Butler, c. 1890

It is so difficult not to become vain about one’s own good luck.

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

A self-made man is one who believes in luck and sends his son to Oxford.

—Christina Stead, 1938