Archive

Quotes

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1610

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

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

—Christina Stead, 1938

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

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886

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

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899

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

—E.B. White, 1944

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

—Calvin Coolidge, 1932

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.

—Joan Didion, 2005

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

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45