’Tis not a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at tables?
—Thomas Browne, 1642
Archive
Quotes
It is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.
—Charlotte Brontë, 1847Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.
—David Hume, 1742Luck takes the step that no one sees.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCGood fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.
—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BCThere 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, 1897You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.
—Cormac McCarthy, 2005We do not suffer by accident.
—Jane Austen, 1813Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.
—Joan Didion, 2005To hold a throne is luck; to bestow it, virtue.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 45To put one’s trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890Fortune resists half-hearted prayers.
—Ovid, 8Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.
—Calvin Coolidge, 1932