Archive

Quotes

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

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

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

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

—Christina Stead, 1938

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

—E.B. White, 1944

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938

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

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

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1610