quotations about luck
The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss anyone's arse.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Goddess Fortune", Notes on Illustrations to Dante
Luck is simply the advantage a true warrior gains in executing the correct course of action.
R. A. SALVATORE
The Halfling's Gem
Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
E. B. WHITE
"Control", One Man's Meat
It's hard to detect good luck -- it looks so much like something you've earned.
FRANK A. CLARK
attributed, Quote Unquote
For luck you carried a horse chestnut and a rabbit’s foot in your right pocket. The fur had been worn off the rabbit’s foot long ago and the bones and the sinews were polished by the wear. The claws scratched in the lining of your pocket and you knew your luck was still there.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
A Moveable Feast
The harder I practice, the luckier I get.
GARY PLAYER
Golf Digest, Oct. 2002
Luck is not chance --
It's Toil --
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned.
EMILY DICKINSON
"Luck is not Chance", Poems
Ill luck comes by pounds and goes away by ounces.
ITALIAN PROVERB
Oh, I am fortune's fool!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
Ill luck, you know, seldom comes alone.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Luck knows no limits.
SENECA
Oedipus
Luck, by definition, is random and completely unpredictable. Good luck is as common as bad luck. Good luck increases returns and bad luck lowers them. Given enough time, however, the net effect of luck on average returns is small. In contrast, skill has a systematic positive effect.
LARRY HARRIS
Trading and Exchanges
Luck affects everything; let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it, there will be a fish.
OVID
attributed, The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Good luck beats early rising.
IRISH PROVERB
Luck, be a lady tonight.
FRANK LOESSER
"Luck Be a Lady", Guys and Dolls
Now, if we understand what unlucky persons are, we shall see that they are to be shunned, or that we are to consort with them only out of kindness or from sympathy, but without joining our interests with theirs; for they are persons who are not harmonious with the condition of things around them, and are as much at issue with life as a bird who should try to live in the water, or a fish to float in the air.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
"Of Luck", Essays
To solicit the aid of luck is like stirring muddy water to bring objects submerged at the bottom to the top where they can be seen. Every worker would to well to tempt their good luck. Nevertheless, we should not depend on it too much.
SANTIAGO RAMON Y CAJAL
Advice for a Young Investigator
There are men who, supposing Providence to have an implacable spite against them, bemoan in the poverty of a wretched old age, the misfortunes of their lives. Luck forever ran against them, and for others; one, with a good profession, lost his luck in the river, where he idled away his time a-fishing, when he should have been in the office; another, with a good trade, perpetually burnt up his luck by his hot temper, which provoked all his employers to leave him; another, with a lucrative business, lost his luck by amazing diligence to everything but his business; and another, who steadily followed his trade, as steadily followed his bottle.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Twelve Lectures to Young Men, on Various Important Subjects
Luck has a way of evaporating when you lean on it.
BRANDON MULL
Keys to the Demon Prison
I always think luck's a bit like splitting a log. You're much more likely to succeed if you read the grain and look for flaw-lines.
K. J. PARKER
Evil for Evil