Archive

Quotes

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

Luck is believing you’re lucky. 

—William Carlos Williams, 1947

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

You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.

—Cormac McCarthy, 2005

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

—Seneca the Younger, c. 45

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

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

We do not suffer by accident. 

—Jane Austen, 1813

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

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899

Fortune resists half-hearted prayers. 

—Ovid, 8

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963