""Oh, ship ahoy!" rang out the cry; "Oh, give us water or we die!" A voice came o'er the waters far, "Just drop your bucket where you are." And then they dipped and drank their fill Of water fresh from mead and hill; And then they knew they sailed upon The broad mouth of the Amazon."

"Der den Augenblick ergreift, Das ist der rechte Mann."

"They do me wrong who say I come no more, When once I knock and fail to find you in; For every day I stand outside your door And bid you wait, and rise to fight and win."

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity."

"Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find: Occasion once past by, is bald behind."

"Rem tibi quam nosces aptam dimittere noli; Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva."

"Observe the opportunity."

"Holding occasion by the hand, Not over nice 'twixt weed and flower, Waiving what none can understand, I take mine hour."

"Not by appointment do we meet delight Or joy; they heed not our expectancy; But round some corner of the streets of life They of a sudden greet us with a smile."

"He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay."

"There is a nick in Fortune's restless wheel For each man's good."

"Seek not for fresher founts afar, Just drop your bucket where you are; And while the ship right onward leaps, Uplift it from exhaustless deeps. Parch not your life with dry despair; The stream of hope flows everywhere— So under every sky and star, Just drop your bucket where you are!"

"O opportunity, thy guilt is great! 'Tis thou that executest the traitor's treason; Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get; Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the season; 'Tis thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason."

"Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not lie ready to their hand, they will make them."

"Opportunity is like a bald-headed man with only a patch of hair right in front. You have to grab that hair, grasp the opportunity while it's confronting you, else you'll be grasping a slick bald head."

"Urge them while their souls Are capable of this ambition, Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath Of soft petitions, pity and remorse, Cool and congeal again to what it was."

"Now let us imagine the situation of Moses if he had not resisted evil and had allowed the worst and crudest elements to destroy the best—the one which was able to assimilate the ideas of morality and order. What would have happened to his task? His duty as a leader and an earthly lawgiver was to protect his people and to maintain order. Therefore, the resistance to evil was basically necessary. All teachings of antiquity declare active resistance to evil. Thus, the well-known sage and lawgiver of China, Confucius, used to say, "God for good, but for evil—justice.""

"Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offer'd, Shall never find it more."

"A staff is quickly found to beat a dog."

"There is an hour in each man's life appointed To make his happiness, if then he seize it."

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

"Danger will wink on opportunity."

"Zeal and duty are not slow But on occasion's forelock watchful wait."

"Playing poker in the Army and as a young lawyer honed my business skills. What you have to learn is to fold early when the odds are against you, or if you have a big edge, back it heavily because you don't get a big edge often. Opportunity comes, but it doesn't come often, so seize it when it does come."

"Opportunity has hair in front, but behind she is bald; if you seize her by the forlock, you may hold her, but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again."

"This could but have happened once, And we missed it, lost it forever."

"There's place and means for every man alive."

"Nostra sine auxilio fugiunt bona. Carpite florem."

"Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock."

"To attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities."

"When there's an opportunity, some people pass it by. I've been lucky enough to recognise opportunities and every day, in my business, there's an opportunity somewhere – to buy, expand, design."

"Never waste a crisis. It can be turned to joyful transformation."

"I took over the Moran and Mack spot and wowed them. The theater owner's report to the booker of the entire circuit was a glowing review. A week later I was booked on a bigger circuit. I kept working and polishing my act until the GIANT door opened for me and there was the big time ... the Palace Theater [sic] on Broadway. P.S. If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."

"The individual who tries to plot his position by reference to our society finds no fixed points, but only the vaunted absence of them, "freedom" and "opportunity"; freedom for what, opportunity to do what, is nowhere indicated. The only positive he is given is "get and spend" ("get and spend—if you can" from the Right, "get and spend—you deserve it" from the Left) and he did not need society to tell him that.""

"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word "crisis". One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger — but recognize the opportunity."

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

"Necessity, the mother of invention."

"I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon—if I can. I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this I have done. All this is what it means to be an American."

"A thousand years a poor man watched Before the gate of Paradise: But while one little nap he snatched, It oped and shut. Ah! was he wise?"

"Who, doomed to go in company with Pain And Fear and Bloodshed,—miserable train!— Turns his necessity to glorious gain."

"Variant: In the Chinese language, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other, opportunity."

"For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible."

"Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma."

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

"Strongest is Necessity because it governs all things."

"Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice."

"I have argued above that we cannot prevent the Singularity, that its coming is an inevitable consequence of the humans' natural competitiveness and the possibilities inherent in technology. And yet … we are the initiators. Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things. We have the freedom to establish initial conditions, make things happen in ways that are less inimical than others. Of course (as with starting avalanches), it may not be clear what the right guiding nudge really is..."

"I am Inevitable."

"You can never find a lost opportunity."

"I hold that to need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer does he approach divinity."