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Quotes

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

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

Casting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BC

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

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847

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

—Calvin Coolidge, 1932

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.

—Cormac McCarthy, 2005

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

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

When the abbot throws the dice, the whole convent will play.

—Martin Luther, c. 1540