quotations about luck
Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it.
DOUGLAS JERROLD
The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold
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
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 chance --
It's Toil --
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned.
EMILY DICKINSON
"Luck is not Chance", Poems
Luck is a discernible, if mysterious, pattern of influences on your life path.
DAVID DANIEL KENNEDY
Feng Shui for Dummies
There is one curious fact noticeable in regard to this thing called "luck," which is, that while it is made responsible for any turn of affairs that we feel to be discreditable to us, it rarely has credit for an opposite state of things; but, like most other faithful allies in victory, comes poorly off.
WILLIAM MATTHEWS
Hints on Success in Life
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
If the influence of luck is a delusion, then all I can say is that the delusion is virtually universal.
FELIX DENNIS
How to Get Rich
Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
E. B. WHITE
"Control", One Man's Meat
That's all your life amounts to in the end: the aggregate of all the good luck and the bad luck you experience. Everything is explained by that simple formula. Tot it up -- look at the respective piles. There's nothing you can do about it: nobody shares it out, allocates it to this one or that, it just happens.
WILLIAM BOYD
Any Human Heart
Ill luck, you know, seldom comes alone.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
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
A lucky chance is constant in nothing but inconstancy.
AURELIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Here's the thing about luck ... you don't know if it's good or bad until you have some perspective.
ALICE HOFFMAN
Local Girls
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
The harder I practice, the luckier I get.
GARY PLAYER
Golf Digest, Oct. 2002
It is ourselves alone that make our days lucky or unlucky. Away, then, with a vain prejudice, the invention of the priesthood, which has been transmitted by our ancestors to an ignorant people.
VOLTAIRE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Good luck beats early rising.
IRISH PROVERB
Luck, be a lady tonight.
FRANK LOESSER
"Luck Be a Lady", Guys and Dolls