“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 16
“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
Context: There must be not merely preparedness in things material; there must be preparedness in soul and mind. To prepare a great army and navy without preparing a proper national spirit would avail nothing. And if there is not only a proper national spirit, but proper national intelligence, we shall realize that even from the standpoint of the army and navy some civil preparedness is indispensable. For example, a plan for national defense which does not include the most far-reaching use and cooperation of our railroads must prove largely futile. These railroads are organized in time of peace. But we must have the most carefully thought out organization from the national and centralized standpoint in order to use them in time of war. This means first that those in charge of them from the highest to the lowest must understand their duty in time of war, must be permeated with the spirit of genuine patriotism; and second, that they and we shall understand that efficiency is as essential as patriotism; one is useless without the other.
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
On his 75th birthday (1947), in reply to a question on whether he was afraid of death, quoted in the N. Y. Times Magazine on November 1, 1964, p. 40 according to Quote It Completely! (1998), Gerhart, Wm. S. Hein Publishing, p. 262 ISBN 1575884003
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Tristan Tzara (1896–1963) Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist
1910s, Dada Manifesto', 1918
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet
As translated by Stanley Kunitz<br>Then fell the word of stone on<br>My still existing, still heaving breast.<br>Never mind, I was not unprepared, and<br>Shall manage to adjust to it somehow.<br>Translated by D. M. Thomas<br>And the stone word fell<br>On my still-living breast.<br>Never mind, I was ready.<br>I will manage somehow.<br> Translated by Judith Hemschemeyer http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/akhmatova/ from Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova (1989) <br class="br">Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), The Sentence
Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953–2001) Afghan military leader
Meeting with European legislators http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2000/june/jun23i2000.html (11 June 2000).
“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Attributed in Laura Haddock (1931), Steps Upward in Personality
Misattributed
Variant: I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.