“… you are an Englishman, and have subsequently drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life.”
said by Rhodes to Lord Grey. [Lewis, Michell, The Life and Times of the Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes 1853-1902, Volume 2, 178, New York and London, Mitchell Kennerly, 1910, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t5m90j14v?urlappend=%3Bseq=194]
Often quoted in variant forms such as "To be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life".
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Cecil Rhodes 9
British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South… 1853–1902Related quotes
A vida...é uma enorme loteria; os prêmios são poucos, os malogrados inúmeros, e com os suspiros de uma geração é que se amassam as esperanças de outra. Isto é a vida.
"Teoria do medalhão" (1881), first collected in Papéis avulses (1882); Jack Schmitt and Lorie Ishimatsu (trans.) The Devil's Church, and Other Stories (London: Grafton, 1987) p. 113.
Source: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter X, paragraph 29, lines 12-15
“Writing is all a lottery -- I have been a loser by the works of the greatest men of the age.”
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771).
Source: The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (Revised Edition) 1977, Chapter Four, Coins, Wheels, And Oddments, p. 119
“Some places have already quit lotteries.”
Mrs. Adams said.
"Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools."
The Lottery (1948)
“What is the greatest surprise you have found about life?”
a university student asked me several years ago.
"Its brevity" I replied without hesitation. … Time moves so quickly, and no matter who we are or what we have done, the time will come when our lives will be over. As Jesus said, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work" (John 9:4). … Life is short, and every day is a gift from God.
Just As I Am : The Autobiography of Billy Graham (1997), co-written with Cliff Barrows