Luck generally comes to those who look after it; and my notion is that it taps, once in a lifetime, at everybody’s door, but if industry does not open it luck goes away.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
Luck implies an absolute absence of any principle.
—Zhuang Zhou (c.369–c.286 BCE) Chinese Taoist Philosopher
Luck is a very good word if you put a P before it.
—Unknown
The Goddess Fortune is the devil’s servant, ready to kiss any one’s ass.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Chance usually favors the prudent man.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Luck. Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s “good luck.” You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning, and success-producing thinking.
—David J. Schwartz (1927–87) American Self-help Author
I base my calculations on the expectation that luck will be against me
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Fortune cannot be flattered by such fetish worship. But she can be wooed and won by hard work.
—Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964) Canadian-born British Politician, Journalist
Pitch a lucky man, into the Nile, says the Arabian proverb, and he will come up with a fish in his mouth.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.
—Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) American Singer
Everything in life is luck.
—Donald Trump (b.1946) American Businessperson, Head of State
Though men pride themselves on their great actions, often they are not the result of any great design, but of chance.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Each man’s character shapes his fortunes.
—Latin Proverb
Good luck is often with the man who doesn’t include it in his plans.
—Unknown
I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest who complained of bad luck.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
What the reason of the ant laboriously drags into a heap, the wind of accident will collect in one breath.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Maybe I’m lucky to be going so slowly, because I may be going in the wrong direction.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
You don’t just luck into things as much as you would like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it is friendships or opportunities.
—Barbara Bush (1925–2018) American First Lady
Luck is believing you’re lucky.
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
Good luck is a lazy man’s estimate of a worker’s success.
—Unknown
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.—The man was born to do it, and his father was born to be the father of him and of this deed, and by looking narrowly, you shall see there was no luck in the matter, but it was all a problem in arithmetic, or an experiment in chemistry.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Foolish indeed are those who trust to fortune.
—Murasaki Shikibu (973–1031) Japanese Diarist, Novelist
Failure and success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
Luck is being in the right place at the right time, but location and timing are to some extent under our control.
—Natasha Josefowitz
The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Chance works for us when we are good captains.
—George Meredith (1828–1909) British Novelist, Poet, Critic
Breaks balance out. The sun don’t shine on the same old dog’s rear end every day.
—Darrell Royal (1924–2012) American Football Player
The rich would have to eat money if the poor did not provide food.
—Russian Proverb