Archive

Quotes

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

—Cormac McCarthy, 2005

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

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899

Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.

—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BC

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

—Thomas Browne, 1642

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

Casting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BC

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

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

Some folks want their luck buttered.

—Thomas Hardy, 1886

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

—Christina Stead, 1938
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