The roulette table pays nobody except him that keeps it. Nevertheless a passion for gaming is common, though a passion for keeping roulette tables is unknown.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The most popular method of distributing wealth is the method of the roulette table.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Horse sense is a good judgement which keeps horses from betting on people.
—W. C. Fields (1880–1946) American Actor, Comedian, Writer
Sports and gaming, whether pursued from a desire of gain or the love of pleasure, are as ruinous to the temper and disposition of the one addicted to them, as they are to his fame and fortune.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
A gambler with a System must be, to a greater or lesser extent, insane.
—George Augustus Henry Sala (1828–95) British Journalist
Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Of all mechanics, of all servile handycrafts-men, a gamester is the vilest. But yet, as many of the quality are of the profession, he is admitted amongst the politest company.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
He was a degenerate gambler. That is, a man who gambled simply to gamble and must lose. As a hero who goes to war must die. Show me a gambler and I’ll show you a loser, show me a hero and I’ll show you a corpse.
—Mario Puzo (1920–99) Novelist, Screenwriter, Journalist
The urge to gamble is so universal and its practice so pleasurable that I assume it must be evil.
—Heywood Broun (1888–1939) American Journalist
The gambler is a moral suicide.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dicebox in hand, shaking the dice.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
I have to confess that I had gambled on my soul and lost it with heroic insouciance and lightness of touch. The soul is so impalpable, so often useless, and sometimes such a nuisance, that I felt no more emotion on losing it than if, on a stroll, I had mislaid my visiting card.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Gambling is a kind of tacit confession that those engaged therein do, in general, exceed the bounds of their respective fortunes; and therefore they cast lots to determine on whom the ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may be saved a little longer.
—William Blackstone (1723–80) English Judge, Jurist, Academic