quotes

E. B. White:

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

Edward Gibbon:

Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.

Edward Gibbon:

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

Edward Gibbon:

All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance.

George Santayana:

Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.

Jean Cocteau:

Of course I believe in luck. How otherwise to explain the success of some people you detest?

John Barrymore:

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.

John Lennon:

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Lucille Ball:

Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it, and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work -- and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Seneca:

If one does not know to which port is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Thomas Jefferson:

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

Thomas Jefferson (attributed):

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.