Archive

Quotes

We do not suffer by accident. 

—Jane Austen, 1813

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

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

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

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

—Samuel Butler, c. 1890

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

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