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Quotes

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

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

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886

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

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

—E.B. White, 1944

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

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

—Samuel Butler, c. 1890

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947