Archive

Quotes

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

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

—Cormac McCarthy, 2005

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

—Christina Stead, 1938

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

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

—Samuel Butler, c. 1890

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

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847

We do not suffer by accident. 

—Jane Austen, 1813

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

—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BC

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

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

—Calvin Coolidge, 1932

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886