Archive

Quotes

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

—Calvin Coolidge, 1932

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

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

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

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

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

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

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.

—Joan Didion, 2005