Source: The Goldfinch
“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.”
Jack London (1876–1916) American author, journalist, and social activist
As quoted in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior (1991) by Dan Millman, p. 78
Life’s not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.
As quoted in "They Came to Write in Hawai‘i" by Joseph Theroux, in Spirit of Aloha (March/April 2007)
Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist
Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things https://archive.org/details/joshbillingsoni00billgoog (1868), Chapter XXIV: "Perkussion Caps", p. 89; republished in The Complete Works of Josh Billings http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36556 (1876), Chapter 141: "Ods and Ens", p. 248. Often paraphrased as "Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well."
Thierry Henry (1977) French association football player
" Thierry Henry player profile http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,278-377977,00.html, Times Online
“My dear hands. Farewell, my poor hands.”
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Russian composer, pianist, and conductor
Quoted in Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002) p. 381.
Said on February 27, 1943, during his last illness, after having said that he would never be able to play again.
Veronica Chambers (1970) writer
On how writing for television influenced her novel The Go-Between in “Author Interview: Veronica Chambers questions Mexican immigrant stereotypes in ‘The Go-Between’” https://www.hypable.com/author-interview-veronica-chambers-the-go-between/ in Hypable (2017 May 9)
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) English poet
" Peace http://www.bartleby.com/122/22.html", lines 3-6 <br class="br">Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1918)
Jupiter to Electra, Act 3
The Flies (1943)
Context: You are a tiny little girl, Electra. Other little girls dreamed of being the richest or the most beautiful women of all. And you, fascinated by the horrid destiny of your people, you wished to become the most pained and the most criminal … At your age, children still play with dolls and they play hopscotch. You, poor child, without toys or playmates, you played murder, because it is a game that one can play alone.
