quotations about luck
Indeed, there is hardly a word in the vocabulary which is more cruelly abused than the word "luck." To all the faults and failures of men, their positive sins and their less culpable shortcomings, it is made to stand a godfather and sponsor. We are all Micawbers at heart, fancying that "something" will one day "turn up" for our good, for which we have never striven. Go talk with the bankrupt man of business, who has swamped his fortune by wild speculation, extravagance of living, or lack of energy, and you will find that he vindicates his wounded self-love by confounding the steps which he took indiscreetly with those to which he was forced by "circumstances," and complacently regarding himself as the victim of ill-luck. Go visit the incarcerated criminal, who has imbrued his hands in the blood of his fellow-man, or who is guilty of less heinous crimes, and you will find that, slumping the temptations which were easy to avoid with those which were comparatively irresistible, he has hurriedly patched up a treaty with conscience, and stifles its compunctious visitings by persuading himself that, from first to last, he was the victim of circumstances. Go talk with the mediocre in talents and attainments, the weak-spirited man who, from lack of energy and application, has made but little headway in the world, being outstripped in the race of life by those whom he had despised as his inferiors, and you will find that he, too, acknowledges the all-potent power of luck, and soothes his humbled pride by deeming himself the victim of ill-fortune. In short, from the most venial offense to the most flagrant, there is hardly any wrong act or neglect to which this too fatally convenient word is not applied as a palliation. It has been truly said that there is a fine generality in the expression--a power of any meaning or no meaning--which fits it for all purposes alike. It is the great permanent non-papal, and self-granted indulgence of all mankind.
WILLIAM MATHEWS
"Good and Bad Luck", Hints on Success in Life
We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?
JEAN COCTEAU
attributed, Forbes, 1985
Luck and ill luck are neighbors.
NORWEGIAN PROVERB
Now for good luck, cast an old shoe after me.
JOHN HEYWOOD
Proverbs
Success is just a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
EARL WILSON
attributed, Quips, Quotes & Queries
Things don't happen because they're bad or good, else all eggs would be addled or none at all, and at the most it is but six to the dozen. There's good chances and bad chances, and nobody's luck is pulled only by one string.
GEORGE ELIOT
Felix Holt
A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.
JAMES A. GARFIELD
Maxims of James Abram Garfield
Together they spent their whole lives waiting for their luck to change, as though luck were some fabulous tide that would one day flood and consecrate the marshes of our island, christening us in the iridescent ointments of a charmed destiny.
PAT CONROY
The Prince of Tides
Luck can only get you so far.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Ancient Egyptians considered it good luck to meet a swarm of Bees on the road. What they considered bad luck I couldn't say.
WILL CUPPY
How to Attract the Wombat
Luck is not the hand of God.... Luck is the way the wind swirls and the dust settles eons after God has passed by.
KURT VONNEGUT
The Sirens of Titan
Luck is a word the bitter teach to the ignorant.
STEVE MARABOLI
Unapologetically You
Good luck and bad luck are strands of the same rope.
SAKURA TSUKUBA
Land of the Blindfolded
As ill-luck would have it ...
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Anybody who is not pulling his weight is probably pushing his luck.
FRANKLIN JONES
attributed, Great Sayings and Quotations
I'm very lucky. The only time I was ever up shit creek, I just happened to have a paddle with me.
GEORGE CARLIN
Brain Droppings
Bad luck is only the superstitious excuse for those who don't have the wit to deal with the problems of life.
JOAN LOWERY NIXON
In the Face of Danger
Luck simply means rising at six in the morning.
ANONYMOUS
Fibre & Fabric: A Record of American Textile Industries, May 10, 1902
Just my luck! When my ship came in, I was stuck at the airport!
MAX KAUFFMANN
attributed, The Biteback Dictionary of Humorous Business Quotations
If lucky be not proud; if unlucky, do not despond.
AUSONIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon