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 promises the poor what property performs for the rich, something for nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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
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
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
Horse sense is a good judgement which keeps horses from betting on people.
—W. C. Fields (1880–1946) American Comedian, Actor, Writer
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 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 (1728–95) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something.
—Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) American Dramatist
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
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
The gambler is a moral suicide.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The most popular method of distributing wealth is the method of the roulette table.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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
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, 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
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, Activist, Political Advocate
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 losses as well as the prizes must be drawn from the cheating lottery of life.
—Unknown
By gambling we lose both our time and treasure, two things most precious to the life of man.
—Owen Feltham (1602–68) English Essayist
Nobody has ever bet enough on a winning horse.
—Common 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
I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.
—Lou Holtz (1893–1980) American Stage Performer
One should always play fair when one has the winning cards.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
There are two great pleasures in gambling: that of winning and that of losing.
—French Proverb
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
Rule: Never perform card tricks for the people you play poker with.
—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
Leave a Reply