Archive

Quotes

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

—Christina Stead, 1938

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

—Cormac McCarthy, 2005

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.

—Joan Didion, 2005

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

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

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

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1963

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

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

Good or ill fortune is very little at our disposal.

—David Hume, 1742

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

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

—Charlotte Brontë, 1847
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