“People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.”

—  Samuel Butler

Lucky and Unlucky
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIV - Higgledy-Piggledy

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they ge…" by Samuel Butler?
Samuel Butler photo
Samuel Butler232
novelist 1835–1902

Related quotes

Eddie Izzard photo

“What have you been reading, The Gospel according to St. Bastard?!”

Eddie Izzard (1962) British stand-up comedian, actor and writer

Sigmund Freud photo

“A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Cassandra Clare photo

“Let me guess. Luke an Amatis are at the Accords Hall, having another meeting.”
“Yeah. I think they’re having the meeting where they get together and decide what other meetings they need to have.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Roger Penrose photo

“It seems to me that we must make a distinction between what is "objective" and what is "measurable" in discussing the question of physical reality, according to quantum mechanics.”

Roger Penrose book The Emperor's New Mind

Source: The Emperor's New Mind (1989), Ch. 6, Quantum Magic and Quantum Mastery, p. 269.
Context: It seems to me that we must make a distinction between what is "objective" and what is "measurable" in discussing the question of physical reality, according to quantum mechanics. The state-vector of a system is, indeed, not measurable, in the sense that one cannot ascertain, by experiments performed on the system, precisely (up to proportionality) what the state is; but the state-vector does seem to be (again up to proportionality) a completely objective property of the system, being completely characterized by the results it must give to experiments that one might perform.

James Anthony Froude photo

“Man is a real man, and can live and act manfully in this world, not in the strength of opinions, not according to what he thinks, but according to what he is.”

James Anthony Froude book The Nemesis of Faith

Preface, Second edition (21 June 1849)
The Nemesis of Faith (1849)

Katharine Hepburn photo

“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything”

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) film, stage, and television actress

Source: Me: Stories of My Life

Terry Pratchett photo

“What have I always believed?
That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right.”

Terry Pratchett book Small Gods

Source: Small Gods

Ian Smith photo

“So [things have] gradually and gradually [gotten] worse and worse until the country is absolutely on the rocks now, and the people are suffering. And this is our hope, because so many people are suffering, have been persecuted and have been told "Get into line, or else", and they know what 'or else' means.”

Ian Smith (1919–2007) Prime Minister of Rhodesia

Ian Smith - A Bit Of A Rebel, Ian Smith

Martin Heidegger photo

“The grandeur of man is measured according to what he seeks and according to the urgency by which he remains a seeker.”

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher

Basic Questions of Philosophy: Selected "Problems" of "Logic" (Grundfragen der Philosophie: Ausgewählte "Probleme" der "Logik" (1984), translated by Richard Rojcewicz and André Schuwer, Indiana University Press, 1994, ISBN 0253004381, p. 7)

Related topics