Archive

Quotes

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.

—Joan Didion, 2005

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

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

There 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, 1897

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

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1610

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

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

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

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906