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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

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.

—Joan Didion, 2005

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938

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

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847

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

—Martin Luther, c. 1540

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

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

—E.B. White, 1944

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

—Calvin Coolidge, 1932

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

We do not suffer by accident. 

—Jane Austen, 1813

Luck, in the great game of war, is undoubtedly lord of all.

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899