Rule: Never perform card tricks for the people you play poker with.
—Common Proverb
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
One should always play fair when one has the winning cards.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something.
—Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) American Playwright, Entrepreneur
Gambling is the child of avarice, but the parent of prodigality.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich, something for nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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
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
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
In gambling the many must lose in order that the few may win.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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
I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
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
There is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card-table, and those cutting passions which naturally attend them. Hollow eyes, haggard looks, and pale complexions are the natural indications of a female gamester. Her morning sleeps are not able to repay her midnight watchings.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
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
Luck never gives; it only lends.
—Swedish Proverb
The most popular method of distributing wealth is the method of the roulette table.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Nobody has ever bet enough on a winning horse.
—Common Proverb
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
I came to the conclusion long ago that all life is six to five against.
—Damon Runyon (1884–1946) American Journalist, Short-Story Writer
Horse sense is a good judgement which keeps horses from betting on people.
—W. C. Fields (1880–1946) American Actor, Comedian, Writer
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
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
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
Gambling is the son of avarice and the father of despair.
—French Proverb
You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
At the gambling table, there are no fathers and sons.
—Chinese Proverb
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
Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
Keep flax from fire, and youth from gaming.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
The best throw of the dice is to throw them away.
—English Proverb
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
There are two great pleasures in gambling: that of winning and that of losing.
—French Proverb
A gambler with a System must be, to a greater or lesser extent, insane.
—George Augustus Henry Sala (1828–95) British Journalist
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 with cards, or dice, or stocks, is all one thing; it is getting money without giving an equivalent for it.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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
Gambling is a principle inherent in nature.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
No wife can endure a gambling husband, unless he is a steady winner.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
By gambling we lose both our time and treasure, two things most precious to the life of man.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist