Archive

Quotes

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

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1610

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938

We do not suffer by accident. 

—Jane Austen, 1813

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

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

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886

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

—Calvin Coolidge, 1932

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC