“When ill luck begins, it does not come in sprinkles, but in showers.”
Mark Twain book Pudd'nhead Wilson
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 6.
“When ill luck begins, it does not come in sprinkles, but in showers.”
Mark Twain book Pudd'nhead Wilson
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 2.
“You are never so alone as when you are ill on stage.”
Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States
LIFE magazine (2 June 1961)
Context: You are never so alone as when you are ill on stage. The most nightmarish feeling in the world is suddenly to feel like throwing up in front of four thousand people.
Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea
Variant: But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.
Source: The Old Man and the Sea
“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”
Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men
Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)
“Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it.”
Douglas William Jerrold (1803–1857) English dramatist and writer
Meeting Troubles half-way, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“As it was ordered, all fell out aright,
For seldom ill design is schemed in vain.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Come ordine era dato, il tutto avvenne,
Che 'l consiglio del mal va raro invano.
Canto XXI, stanza 48 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Les gens heureux ne se corrigent guère; ils croient toujours avoir raison quand la fortune soutient leur mauvaise conduite.
Maxim 227.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)