quotations about luck
It's hard to detect good luck -- it looks so much like something you've earned.
FRANK A. CLARK
attributed, Quote Unquote
Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds.
IAN FLEMING
Casino Royale
Stoutly as we may affirm that our disasters and vices are chargeable to luck, we never dream of ascribing our meritorious deeds, in the slightest degree to its agency. In such cases we quite unconsciously blink out of sight the magic power of the latter principle, so wondrous and all-controlling in its influence at other times, and coolly appropriate to ourselves not merely the lion's share, but the whole glory of our position.
WILLIAM MATTHEWS
Hints on Success in Life
So powerfully does fortune appear to sway the destinies of men, putting a silver spoon into one man's mouth, and a wooden one into another's, that some of the most sagacious of men, as Cardinal Mazarin and Rothschild, seem to have been inclined to regard luck as the first element of worldly success; experience, sagacity, energy, and enterprise as nothing, if linked to an unlucky star.
WILLIAM MATHEWS
"Good and Bad Luck", Hints on Success in Life
An ounce of luck is worth a pound of wisdom.
FRENCH PROVERB
Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
letter to Scottie Fitzgerald, Sep. 19, 1938
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
Luck is the by-product of busting your fanny.
DON SUTTON
attributed, Quote Unquote
A rabbit's foot may bring good luck to you, but it brought none to the rabbit.
AMBROSE BIERCE
"Epigrams of a Cynic"
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.
GARRISON KEILLOR
Lake Wobegon Days
Luck's just another word for destiny ... either you make your own or you're screwed.
JOHN LE CARRÉ
The Mission Song
Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
E. B. WHITE
"Control", One Man's Meat
Even the luckless need their luck.
YIDDISH PROVERB
I've found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities.
TIMOTHY ZAHN
Heir to the Empire
Each misfortune you encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrow's good luck.
OG MANDINO
attributed, Secrets of Lucky People: A Study of the Laws of Good Luck
After hard work, the biggest determinate is being in the right place at the right time.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
Newsweek, Aug. 4, 1997
A man forgets his good luck next day, but remembers his bad luck until next year.
EDGAR WATSON HOWE
Country Town Sayings
Luck is a discernible, if mysterious, pattern of influences on your life path.
DAVID DANIEL KENNEDY
Feng Shui for Dummies
Luck knows no limits.
SENECA
Oedipus
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