Archive

Quotes

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

Misfortune, n. The kind of fortune that never misses.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

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

—Christina Stead, 1938

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1610

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886

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

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

—Samuel Butler, c. 1890

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

—E.B. White, 1944