To hold a throne is luck; to bestow it, virtue.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 45Quotes
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 BCWhen the abbot throws the dice, the whole convent will play.
—Martin Luther, c. 1540It is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.
—Charlotte Brontë, 1847Luck takes the step that no one sees.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCTo put one’s trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890Misfortune, n. The kind of fortune that never misses.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938’Tis not a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at tables?
—Thomas Browne, 1642Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.
—Joan Didion, 2005There 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, 1897It is so difficult not to become vain about one’s own good luck.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
—E.B. White, 1944