“Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.”

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus

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Democritus81

Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of t…

Joan Lowery Nixon (1927–2003) American children's writer and journalist

Source: In The Face of Danger

“Sharpe's sword was lucky. There was a soldier's goddess and her name was Fate and she had liked the sword Harper made for Sharpe. The Kligenthal was stained with the blood of friends, with the torture of flayed priests, and the beautiful sword contained not luck, but evil.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Narrator, p. 312
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Sword (1983)

“Men do not know how to appreciate or measure luck except that of others. Their own never.”

Indro Montanelli (1909–2001) Italian journalist

History of the Greeks, Rizzoli 1959.
1950s - 1990s

“Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity. For Chance rarely conflicts with intelligence, and most things in life can be set in order by an intelligent sharpsightedness.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Freeman (1948), p. 155

“Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.”

François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Les gens heureux ne se corrigent guère; ils croient toujours avoir raison quand la fortune soutient leur mauvaise conduite.
Maxim 227.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)