Gambling is the son of avarice and the father of despair.
—French Proverb
The most popular method of distributing wealth is the method of the roulette table.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Curst is the wretch enslaved to such a vice, who ventures life and soul upon the dice.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
I came to the conclusion long ago that all life is six to five against.
—Damon Runyon (1884–1946) American Journalist, Short-Story Writer
Smith and Wesson or a Colt always beat four aces.
—U.S. Proverb
Whenever you see a gaming table be sure to know fortune is not there. Rather she is always in the company of industry.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
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
Gambling undermines the moral fiber of society.
—Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) American Mormon Religious Leader
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that is the way to bet.
—Damon Runyon (1884–1946) American Journalist, Short-Story Writer
The gambler is a moral suicide.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Play not for gain, but sport; who plays for more than he can lose with pleasure stakes his heart.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
I have a notion that gamblers are as happy as most people, being always excited; women, wine, fame, the table, even ambition, sate now and then, but every turn of the card and cast of the dice keeps the gambler alive—besides one can game ten times longer than one can do any thing else.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something.
—Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) American Playwright, Entrepreneur
The losses as well as the prizes must be drawn from the cheating lottery of life.
—Unknown
All gaming, since it implies a desire to profit at the expense of others, involves a breach of the tenth commandment.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
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
Nobody has ever bet enough on a winning horse.
—Common Proverb
An assembly of the states or a court of justice, shows nothing so serious and grave as a table of gamesters playing very high; a melancholy solicitude clouds their looks; envy and rancor agitate their minds while the meeting lasts, without regard to friendship, alliances, birth, or distinctions.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Gambling is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Gambling, in all countries, is the vice of the aristocracy.—The young find it established in the best circles, and enticed by the habits of others they are ruined when the habit becomes their own.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
If thou desire to raise thy fortunes by the casts of fortune, be wise betimes, lest thou repent too late.—What thou winnest, is prodigally spent.—What thou losest, is prodigally lost.—It is an evil trade that prodigality drives, and a bad voyage where the pilot is blind.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
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
Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Gambling is a principle inherent in nature.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined; he adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide renounces earth to forfeit heaven.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
Bets, at the first, were fool-traps, where the wise, like spiders, lay in ambush for the flies.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
Although men of eminent genius have been guilty of all other vices, none worthy of more than a secondary name has ever been a gamester. Either an excess of avarice, or a deficiency of excitability, is the cause of it; neither of which can exist in the same bosom with genius, patriotism, or virtue.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
You cannot get anything out of nature or from God by gambling; only out of your neighbor.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
One should always play fair when one has the winning cards.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
Gambling is the child of avarice, but the parent of prodigality.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
No wife can endure a gambling husband, unless he is a steady winner.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
A Gentleman is a man who will pay his gambling debts even when he knows he has been cheated.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Gambling houses are temples where the most sordid and turbulent passions contend; there no spectator can be indifferent. A card or a small square of ivory interests more than the loss of an empire, or the ruin of an unoffending group of infants, and their nearest relatives.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
Luck never gives; it only lends.
—Swedish Proverb
Someone once asked me why women don’t gamble as much as men do, and I gave the common-sensical reply that we don’t have as much money. That was a true but incomplete answer. In fact, women’s total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Social Activist, Political Activist
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
Rule: Never perform card tricks for the people you play poker with.
—Common Proverb
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. I cannot believe that God plays dice with the world.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich, something for nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to gamble; but it is impossible that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Don’t gamble! Take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up, don’t buy it.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
By gambling we lose both our time and treasure, two things most precious to the life of man.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
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
The only man who makes money following the races is one who does it with a broom and shovel.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher