Quotes about a chance
page 5

“Because here is the truth: If you want to have a chance at meeting somebody with whom you are genuinely compatible, never put your best foot forward.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

Truth

“I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt it in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.”

Leo Tolstoy book Family Happiness

Variant: I want movement, not a calm course of existence. I want excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I feel in myself a superabundance of energy which finds no outlet in our quiet life.
Source: Family Happiness

Love, Life

“Statistically speaking, there's a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

World, Parting

“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.”

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat

Love, Life, Star, Beauty

“I was young I was so young it hurt like a knife
inside
because there was no alternative except to hide as long
as possible---
not in self-pity but with dismay at my limited chance:
trying to connect.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Hurt

“So we make stories of our own, in fevered and envious imitation of our Maker, hoping that we'll tell, by chance, what God left untold. And finishing our tale, come to understand why we were born.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

God, Hope, Understanding

“People who stay in the same town with the same friends for their entire lives never get a chance to find out who they can really be, because they will always be considered as who they were.”

Lisa Unger book Fragile

Source: Fragile

People

“If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction. But there is always the chance that such a book of fiction may throw some light on what has been written as fact.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Source: A Moveable Feast

Books, Light

“Sometimes, you get no second chance and that its best to accept the gifts the world offers you.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

World

“I'm chasing you. I'm going to chase you until you give this a chance.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Americanah

Source: Americanah

“I mean, is there a chance for me? To have another life after this, a better one?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Life

“A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself. You have a chance to select from pretty elegant furnishings.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Life, Home

“I loved you way before you ever had a chance to put a spell on me. I loved you at 'I've never been to Long Island,'" Zach said.
I couldn't keep a big goofy grin from my face.
I loved you at 'I like seals,'" I admitted. He grinned back.”

Meg Cabot Jinx

Source: Jinx

Love, Way

“There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.”

Euripidés Iphigenia in Tauris

Iphigenia in Tauris (c. 412 BC) l. 721

Happiness, Change

“The history of free men is never really written by chance - but by choice. Their choice.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Address in Pittsburgh http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/education/bsa/citizenship_merit_badge/eisenhower_citizenship_quotations.pdf (9 October 1956) <br class="br">1950s

Men, History

“With writing, we have second chances.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

“Was I the only person who was distracted by this future without a chance?”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Future, Personality

“Why didn’t you tell me there was danger? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know what to guard against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance of discovering in that way; and you did not help me!”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Way, Reading, Help

“When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there’s always a chance that the dancing bear will win.”

Nancy Isenberg (1958) American historian

Source: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

Dance

“The Princess Bride
S. Morgenstern's
Classic Tale of True Love
and High Adventure

You had to admire a guy who called his own new book a classic before it was published and anyone had a chance to read it.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Love, Books, Guy, Reading

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”

Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) American actress, television producer

Pain, Courage, Courageous

“In the blink of an eye, something happens by chance - when you least expect it - sets you on a course that you never planned, into a future you never imagined.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Source: The Lucky One

Imagination, Future

“Don't think there are no second chances.

Life always offers you a SECOND CHANCE…

It's called TOMORROW”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Life, Thinking, New Year

“Why not? Life is short, life is dull, life is full of pain - and this is a chance for something special.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Source: Unknown Book 7074565

Life, Pain

“A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless'…”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: Hitch-22: A Memoir

Love, Life, Friendship, Music

“In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: The World and Other Places: Stories

“This is the woman's century, the first chance for the mother of the world to rise to her full place… and the world waits while she powders her nose.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

World, Waiting

“All right, two dozen house specials. Any chance one of you might want to live dangerously and try a vegetable? (Aimee)
Do we look like rabbits to you? (Fury)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

Housing

“I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more
chances, Be more active, Show up more often.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

“She wrote, I wish I could be a girl again, with a chance to live my life again. I have suffered so much more than I needed to. And the joys I have felt have not always been joyous. I could have lived differently.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Life, Girl, Suffering, Joy

“This is not to say, there never comes a day I'll take my chances and start again. And when I look behind on all my younger times, I'll have to thank the wrongs that led me to a love so strong.”

John Mayer (1977) guitarist and singer/songwriter

Source: John Mayer - Battle Studies

Love, Strong, Time

“But you only get so many do-overs in this life, so many chances to, if not change your past, alter your future.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Life, Change, Past, Future

“Of Equality--as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself--as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

“I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Love, Life

“You want me to give her a key?" the guy asked.
"I want you to give her a possibility," she told him, looking at my necklace again. "And that's what a key represents. An open door, a chance. You know?”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Guy

“We did just leave an insane asylum,” Hi agreed. “For all we know, Chance spend his nights dancing naked with sock puppets, plotting to invade Canada.”

Kathy Reichs book Seizure

Source: Seizure

Dance, Night

“Oh, but I like my geese. Like cats, they can't be told what to do, and like dogs, they're loyal, and like people, they talk every chance they get.”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

People, Dogs, Cats

“Never miss a chance… to keep your mouth shut.”

Robert Newton Peck book A Day No Pigs Would Die

Source: A Day No Pigs Would Die

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Death, Confidence, Self-confidence

“No past. No future. Just present. Give it a chance.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Every Day

Past, Future

“The future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Saint Anything

Future

“God's a busy guy. He don't have time to micromanage. What are the chances he heard that? It's early in the morning. He's probably having breakfast with Mrs. God.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Source: Motor Mouth

God, Guy, Business, Time

“Plus it'll give you a chance to get us a wedding present. We're not registered anywhere, but we could seriously use some china and a blender.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Wedding

“I have to warn you. I promised my mother, a long time ago. She said I had to give folks a chance to walk away.”

Lee Child book Nothing to Lose

Source: Nothing to Lose

Time

“I could have lied. I could have fought. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so I took a chance and called upon a Gallagher Girl's weapon of last resort. I flirted”

Ally Carter book Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Girl, Time

“You wanted to drown in a woman. Here's your chance. Drown in her blood"
~Violence(Maddox)”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Night

“I've never been very good at leaving things behind. I tried, but I have always left fragments of myself there too, like seeds awaiting their chance to grow.”

Joanne Harris (1964) British author

“All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was alway controlling who got a chance and who didn't.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Guy

“Your destiny is shaped by choice, never by chance. Beware the decisions you make, no matter how small, for they will be your salvation… or your death.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Death, Decision

“If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

Hunger

“Never be afraid to love, not even when there's a chance you're not being loved in return.”

Tom Robbins B Is for Beer

Source: B Is for Beer

Love

“I so rarely have the chance to field-test anything. Amelie is so conservative about these things -Myrnin”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Bite Club

“Bending his head over hers, Leo murmured, "When I give you away at the altar, Bea, I want you to remember something. I'm not really giving you away. I'm merely allowing him the chance to love you as much as the rest of us do.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

Love

“Oh, I'll enjoy myself. I want to make sure you enjoy yourself."
"Why?" I said.
"If you enjoy yourself, then there's a better chance you'll want to be with me again.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Hit List

Source: Hit List

“Before going back to sleep I imagined (I saw) a plastic universe, changeable, full of wondrous chance, an elastic sky, a sun that suddenly is missing or remains fixed or changes its shape.”

Julio Cortázar book Hopscotch

Source: Hopscotch

Imagination, Sleep, Universe, Change

“… children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.”

Ishmael Beah book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Source: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Children, Suffering

“No chance. It'd be like cutting off our hands."
"Then learn to live without your hands."
"No, because then we won't be able to do this," Ben says, giving him the finger […]”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Learning

“To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lovely labor, to be given the chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.”

Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States

Love, Life, Money, Dreams

“Hope implies that you think you have a chance at something.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Hope, Thinking

“Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Book III, Ch. 13
Essais (1595), Book III
Source: Montaigne: Essays

Business, Nature

“Maybe… because for the first time… there was a chance I could keep him,” I say.
“So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?”
“Put you somewhere you can't get hurt.”
And when he kisses me, people in the room actually sigh.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

People, Kiss, Time, Hurt

“We may run, walk, stumble. drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.”

Gloria Gaither (1942) American gospel songwriter, author & scholar

Way, Flying

“Hi, I'm one of the knife-carrying hooligans you met last night in Pandemonium? I'm afraid I made a bad impression and was hoping you'd give me a chance to make it up to- "
"SIMON!”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Clary held the phone away from her ear as he cracked up laughing. "That is so not funny!"
Simon and Clary, pg. 19
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Hope, Night

“It's hard to remember that this day will never come again. That the time is now and the place is here and that there are no second chances at a single moment.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Time

“Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Tout existant naît sans raison, se prolonge par faiblesse et meurt par rencontre.
Nausea (1938)

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Life, Health

“And here's my advice to you. If you get the chance of the mad kind of love, grab it with both hands, and to hell with the consequences.”

Ken Follett book Winter of the World

Source: Winter of the World

Love, Hell, Madness

“We’re so screwed. (Cassandra)
Yeah, well, I don’t let anyone screw me until they kiss me, and since there’s not even a snowball’s chance in hell of me kissing that bastard, we’re not screwed. (Wulf)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

Hell, Kiss

“Make whatever decision you wish but never forget one thing: all of you are much better than you believed. Take advantage of the chance that tragedy has given you; not everyone is capable of doing so”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Decision, Forgetting

“You can have the other words — chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

"Sand Dabs, Five"
Winter Hours (1999)
Context: You can have the other words — chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace. I don't know what it is exactly, but I'll take it.

“Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure
I’d face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.”

A.E. Housman book A Shropshire Lad

No. 62, st. 3.
Source: A Shropshire Lad (1896)

World, Sun, Training

“This is your one chance. Tell me where the key is."
"Okay."
Serpine raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"No, only joking. Do your worst.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

“I've wished for things and never really had the chance… It's time to stop dreaming and do something about it. You've got to know what you want, then… go.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

Dreams, Time

“You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it.”

Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic

Life

“I've given lots of people chances, she said suddenly, as if Marion was still in the room to hear us. But there's only so much faith you can have in people.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You (1998)

People, Faith

“Despite his crimped shirts and flowing mane (or perhaps because of them) I had seen no evidence as yet that Nathaniel even knew what a girl was. If he'd ever met one, chances are they'd both have run screaming in opposite directions.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Golem's Eye

Source: The Golem's Eye

Girl

“Most people's problems would be solved if they would only give more things a chance.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

People, Problem

“It costs me never a stab nor squirm

To tread by chance upon a worm.

"Aha, my little dear," I say,

"Your clan will pay me back some day."”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

First printed in New Yorker, (9 April 1927) p. 31
Sunset Gun (1927)

“Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Teachings on Love

Happiness, World, Peace, Peaceful

“Finally, she mused that human existence is as brief as the life of autumn grass, so what was there to fear from taking chances with your life?”

Mo Yan book Red Sorghum

Source: Red Sorghum: A Novel of China (1986/1987)

Life, Fear, Autumn, Grass

“There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion
that if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,
Spilled on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Life, Secret, Water, Heart

“The only safe thing is to take a chance.”

Elaine May (1932) American screenwriter, film director, actress, and comedian

“So many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop them in midstream. But it was even worse when you knew in that very moment that there was still time to save yourself, and yet you couldn't even budge.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Time

“When I got the chance
I asked them a slew of questions.
They offered to burn me;
it was the only thing they knew.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Question

“What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial - or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.”

Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist

Source: The Blood of the Lamb

God, People, Idea, Despair

“I thought there was a good chance the fridge was possessed. It was subtle about it, but I had its number. I knew its ways. Oh yes.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Hunt the Moon

Way

“I have become convinced that God thoroughly enjoys fixing and saving things that are broken. That means that no matter how hurt and defeated you feel, no matter how badly you have been damaged, God can repair you. God can give anyone a second chance.”

Melody Carlson (1956) American writer

Source: Damaged: A Violated Trust

God, Feeling, Hurt

“So much of love is chance. There's something scary and wonderful about that.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Love

“If I do not speak in a language that can be understood there is little chance for a dialogue.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

“Life is too precious to be left to chance”

Walter Moers The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Source: The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Life

“Unforgiveness denies the victim the possibility of parole and leaves them stuck in the prison of what was, incarcerating them in their trauma and relinquishing the chance to escape beyond the pain.”

T.D. Jakes (1957) American bishop

Pain

“I had a chance at him now. Things were a bit more even. He knew my name, I knew his. He had six years' experience, I had five thousand and ten. That was the kind of odds that you could do something with.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Amulet of Samarkand

Source: The Amulet of Samarkand

“There are more than two chances– many more. I know now, after fifty years, that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering, leaving/returning, never stops. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? (2011), p.38
Source: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Life, Forgetting

“God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as he always has. But he can't if you don't pray, and he can't if you don't dream. In short, he can't if you don't believe.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

God, Dreams, Waiting

“Mutilated corpses with a chance of afternoon showers. I got dressed and went to work.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Variant: Another beautiful Miami day. Mutilated corpses with a chance of afternoon showers. I got dressed and went to work.
Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter