Luck
From Wikiquote
Luck is a chance happening, or that which happens beyond a person's control, and can be referred to as "good luck" or "bad luck".
Contents |
Quotes [edit]
- Alphabetized by author
- Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.
- Roald Amundsen, in The South Pole (1912)
- No amount of careful planning can beat pure luck.
- I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.
- Coleman Cox, in Listen to this (1922)
- Unsourced variant: The harder I work, the luckier I get.
- Sometimes mistakenly attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Stephen Leacock, or Samuel Goldwyn
- Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances: It was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or, it was so then, and another day it would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, in The Conduct of Life (1860); this has also been paraphrased as "Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances. Real men believe in cause and effect".
- In my experience, there's no such thing as luck.
- George Lucas, depicting an expression of Obi-Wan Kenobi, in Star Wars (1977)
- No one I met at this time — doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients — failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all.
- The harder I practice, the luckier I get.
- Luck is the residue of design.
- Branch Rickey, as quoted in Psychology Applied to Work : An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology (1982) by Paul M. Muchinsky, p.482; this has often become paraphrased as : "Luck is the residue of hard work and design".
- As Bob Dylan forgot to say, "To live outside the law, you must be lucky."
- Spider Robinson, in Callahan's Key (2000)
- I don't need luck, Sarge. I was born lucky!
- Robert Rodat, depicting "Pvt. Reiben" in Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Luck can only get you so far.
- J. K. Rowling, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; Hermione Granger referring to a luck potion Felix Felicis
- Good luck in most cases comes through the misfortune of others.
- Sir John Young “Jackie” Stewart (b. 1939), Scottish racing driver, businessman. From his interview with Martyn Lewis, in Lewis’ book, Reflections on Success (1997), p. 938
- The only thing I ever learned was that some people are lucky and other people aren't and not even a graduate of the Harvard Business School can say why.
- Kurt Vonnegut, as quoted in "The Sirens of Titan" by character Noel Constant
- We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.
- Nero Wolfe in The Rubber Band (1936) by Rex Stout
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations [edit]
- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 484.
- O, once in each man's life, at least,
Good luck knocks at his door;
And wit to seize the flitting guest
Need never hunger more.
But while the loitering idler waits
Good luck beside his fire,
The bold heart storms at fortune's gates,
And conquers its desire.- Lewis J. Bates, Good Luck
- As ill-luck would have it.
- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605-15), Part I, Book I, Chapter II
- As they who make
Good luck a god count all unlucky men.- George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy (1868), Book I
- A farmer travelling with his load
Picked up a horseshoe on the road,
And nailed it fast to his barn door,
That luck might down upon him pour;
That every blessing known in life
Might crown his homestead and his wife,
And never any kind of harm
Descend upon his growing farm.- James T. Fields, The Lucky Horseshoe
- Now for good lucke, cast an old shooe after mee.
- John Heywood, Proverbs, Part I, Chapter IX
- Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it.
- Douglas Jerrold, Jerrold's Wit, Meeting Trouble Half-Way
- Felix ille tamen corvo quoque rarior albo.
- A lucky man is rarer than a white crow.
- Juvenal, Satires, VII. 202
- Happy art thou, as if every day thou hadst picked up a horseshoe.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847), Part I, Stanza 2
- "Then here goes another," says he, "to make sure,
For there's luck in odd numbers," says Rory O'More.- Samuel Lover, Rory O'More
- Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth.- John Milton, At a Vacation Exercise in the College
- By the luckiest stars.
- William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act I, scene 3, line 252
- When mine hours were nice and lucky.
- William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act III, scene 13, line 179
- And good luck go with thee.
- William Shakespeare, Henry V (c. 1599), Act IV, scene 3, line 11
- As good luck would have it.
- William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1597; published 1602), Act III, scene 5, line 83
- Good luck lies in odd numbers * * * They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.
- William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1597; published 1602), Act V, scene 1, line 2
- And wheresoe'er thou move, good luck
Shall fling her old shoe after.- Alfred Tennyson, Will Waterproof's Lyrical Monologue, Stanza 27
Unsourced [edit]
- The universe runs on a strict mathematical equation of cause and effect, luck is being the right number
- Luck favors the prepared
- Louis Pasteur
- ...Do I feel lucky?
- Every man is the architect of his own fortune.
- I have a lot of luck, it's just not always good luck.
- It is a madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because in herself she is nothing, but is ruled by prudence.
- It's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.
- King Charles in Pippin.
- Let fortune do her worst, whatever she makes us lose, so long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence.
- Luck be a lady tonight.
- Guys and Dolls, as song of Sky Masterson
- Luck favors the prepared, darling.
- Edna Mode in The Incredibles, originally from Louis Pasteur
- Luck... protects fools, small children and ships named Enterprise.
- Men live at the mercy of forces they cannot control. Belief in fortune and luck, good and evil, is one of the most widespread and persistent of human beliefs.
- Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
- The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; and the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.
- The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.
- The prudent man really frames his own fortunes for himself.
- I make my own luck.
- I think Luck is what we describe as a chance that was beneficial to us.
- My socks and shoes always match. Is it luck?
