Luck

"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."

"No amount of careful planning can beat pure luck."

"Careful planning is no substitute for dumb luck."

"“It was just good luck, last minute luck.” “Your ‘luck’ was mostly sweat and intuition.”"

"With any luck. Stark smiled cynically. Not that he did not believe in luck. Rather, he had found it to be an uncertain ally."

"As ill-luck would have it."

"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have."

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?"

"I don't watch the ball. I watch them. Like I said — You make your own luck. Perception is reality. And it doesn't matter a tuppeny toss where the ball actually lands... Just as long as they see what I want them to see."

"As they who make Good luck a god count all unlucky men."

"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."

"Some say I lucked up; I call it perfect timing."

"Some of you will be successful, and such will need but little philosophy to take them home in cheerful spirits; others will be disappointed, and will be in a less happy mood. To such, let it be said, “Lay it not too much to heart.” Let them adopt the maxim, “Better luck next time”; and then, by renewed exertion, make that better luck for themselves."

"Happy art thou, as if every day thou hadst picked up a horseshoe."

"In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

"Sometimes luck is with you and sometimes it's not with you. That's the way life is."

"“I trust to luck to get me by. Luck and destiny.” His eyes were bright with reflected moonlight. “Sometimes they serve me well.”"

"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."

"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity."

"The harder I practice, the luckier I get."

"Elisa Maza: You have to quit! He's using you!"

"Luck is the residue of design."

"As Bob Dylan forgot to say, "To live outside the law, you must be lucky.""

"I don't need luck, Sarge. I was born lucky!"

"Luck can only get you so far."

"Sed res docuit id verum esse, quod in carminibus Appius ait, fabrum esse suae quemque fortunae."

"By the luckiest stars."

"When mine hours were nice and lucky."

"And good luck go with thee."

"As good luck would have it."

"Good luck lies in odd numbers * * * They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death."

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."

"Luck is infatuated with the efficient."

"Good luck in most cases comes through the misfortune of others."

"The lucky man is honored ... But earnest striving wins no praise at all."

"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."

"It reminds us that a man driven to desire to possess a certain female is a highly purposive individual. We have already noted that evolution tends to mark time when individuals have no reason to evolve. The same applies to individuals; they may be talented and intelligent, and yet waste their lives because they somehow lack the motivation to make use of these faculties. The best piece of luck that can befall any individual is to have a strong sense of purpose."

"We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits."

"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."

"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."

"Now for good lucke, cast an old shooe after mee."

"Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it."

"Felix ille tamen corvo quoque rarior albo."

""Then here goes another," says he, "to make sure, For there's luck in odd numbers," says Rory O'More."

"Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth."

"And wheresoe'er thou move, good luck Shall fling her old shoe after."

"Onni miestä, jalat jänistä. (Ähtäri) (KVL)"