„They’ll stone ya and then they’ll say, “good luck”“
— Bob Dylan American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist 1941
Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Quotes about happiness
A collection of quotes on the topic of luck.
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„Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.“
— Denzel Washington actor, screenwriter, director, producer 1954
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„And these pleasures that you cannot ever forget are the yeast that always starts working in your mind again, and it gets in your thoughts again, and in your eyes again, and then, all at once, no matter what has happened to you, you are building a brand new world again, based and built on the mistakes, the wreck, the hard luck and trouble of the old one.“
— Woody Guthrie American singer-songwriter and folk musician 1912 - 1967
Context: I have hoped as many hopes and dreamed so many dreams, seen them swept aside by weather, and blown away by men, washed away in my own mistakes, that — I use to wonder if it wouldn't be better just to haul off and quit hoping. Just protect my own inner brain, my own mind and heart, by drawing it up into a hard knot, and not having any more hopes or dreams at all. Pull in my feelings, and call back all of my sentiments — and not let any earthly event move me in either direction, either cause me to hate, to fear, to love, to care, to take sides, to argue the matter at all — and, yet … there are certain good times, and pleasures that I never can forget, no matter how much I want to, because the pleasures, and the displeasures, the good times and the bad, are really all there is to me.
And these pleasures that you cannot ever forget are the yeast that always starts working in your mind again, and it gets in your thoughts again, and in your eyes again, and then, all at once, no matter what has happened to you, you are building a brand new world again, based and built on the mistakes, the wreck, the hard luck and trouble of the old one.
"Notes about Music" (29 March 1946) http://web.archive.org/19991001055247/www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/music.html also quoted in A Race of Singers: Whitman's Working-Class Hero from Guthrie to Springsteen (2000) by Bryan K. Garman, p. 244
„The first rule of luck in business is that you should persevere in doing the right thing. Opportunities will come your way if you do.“
— Ronald Cohen British businessman 1945
Book The Second Bounce of the Ball (2007)
„when your down on your luck and you've lost all your dreams theres nothing like a campfire and a can of beans“
— Tom Waits American singer-songwriter and actor 1949
„This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite-Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and broke some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was found by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed farm-houses, with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning little porch under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored flowers and cats; on the ground floor a large and light sitting-room, separated from the milch-cattle apartment by a partition; and in the front yard rose stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the manure-pile. That sentence is Germanic, and shows that I am acquiring that sort of mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables a man to travel all day in one sentence without changing cars.“
— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910
Christian Science (1907), Book I, Ch. 1 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3187/3187-h/3187-h.htm#link2H_4_0002
„Can I still wish you good luck?“
— Alastair Reynolds British novelist and astronomer 1966
Redemption Ark (2002), “You can wish me what the hell you like. It won’t make any difference. If it did, it would mean I hadn’t prepared well enough.
Chapter 38 (p. 654)
„What luck I had to meet Morell. He has saved my life.“
— Theodor Morell Personal physician to Adolf Hitler 1886 - 1948
Adolf Hitler.
„The theory of probability combines commonsense reasoning with calculation. It domesticates luck, making it subservient to reason.“
— Ivars Peterson Canadian mathematician 1948
The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997), Chapter 1, “The Die is Cast” (p. 19)
„"The ability to see what is, sir, is essential for the leader of a great nation," the British minister said. He wanted to let Lincoln down easy if he could. "I see what is, all right. I surely do," the president said. "I see that you European powers are taking advantage of this rebellion to meddle in America, the way you used to before the Monroe Doctrine warned you to keep your hands off. Napoleon props up a tin-pot emperor in Mexico, and now France and England are in cahoots"- another phrase that briefly baffled Lord Lyons- "to help the Rebels and pull us down. All right, sir." He breathed heavily. "If that's the way the game's going to be played, we aren't strong enough to prevent it now. But I warn you, Mr. Minister, we can play, too." "You are indeed a free and independent nation," Lord Lyons agreed. "You may pursue diplomacy to the full extent of your interests and abilities." "Mighty generous of you," Lincoln said with cutting irony. "And one fine day, I reckon, we'll have friends in Europe, too, friends who'll help us get back what's rightfully ours and what you've taken away." "A European power- to help you against England and France?" For the first time, Lord Lyons was undiplomatic enough to laugh. American bluster was bad enough most times, but this lunacy- "Good luck to you, Mr. President. Good luck."“
— Harry Turtledove, The Great War: American Front
The Great War: American Front (1998), p. 9
„Philippe Durance: … How does one become Michel Crozier?
Michel Crozier: I'm going to give you an absurd answer. One becomes Michel Crozier by accident. I never had a vision of what I wanted to do, nor what I was going to become. I suppose there were a certain number of opportunities which presented themselves, but I hadn't expected any of them.
My first revelation was in America. I was living and working in United States with the aid of a scholarship which I hadn't really requested and just sort of fell into my lap by luck. There were even a few colleagues who said that there must have been an error. That was 1947 and at that time, I considered myself a poet. I didn't know anything about sociology, and I had a grant to study the labour movement in the United States. I discovered both. I forgot how to be a poet and I became passionate for what I had to do. Without any preparation, I interviewed heaps of union members. That allowed me to write a book on American labour unions [1951] and pass my doctoral thesis… So, I found myself to be a sociologist.“
— Michel Crozier French sociologist 1922 - 2013
Michel Crozier in: " The Foresight Interviews Michel Crozier, sociologist and member of the Institute Philippe Durance http://en.laprospective.fr/dyn/anglais/memoire/interview_croziereng.pdf," at en.laprospective.fr, translated by Adam Gerber July 2007
„As ill-luck would have it.“
— Miguel de Cervantes Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright 1547 - 1616
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 2.
„It is terrible bad luck. Owls are often augurs of death, Mr. Flattery. There is no surer sign.“
— Sean Russell author 1952
World Without End (1995), “Not even the cessation of breathing?” the viscount asked, but neither Tristam nor Beacham laughed.
Chapter 39 (p. 557)
„Gambling, in the ultimate study, stems from the passive, the submissive, the irresponsible in human nature; the gambler is one of an inferior lickspittle breed who turns himself belly-upward to the capricious deeds of Luck. Examine now the man of strength and action: he is never led by destiny. He drives on a decided course, manipulates the variables, and instead of submitting to the ordained shape of his life, creates a pattern to his own design.“
— Jack Vance American mystery and speculative fiction writer 1916 - 2013
Short fiction, Sanatoris Short-Cut (1948), Startling Stories (September 1948), p. 113
