“Don't bet your life on a speculative game that you can't win.”

Last update Aug. 26, 2024. History

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Robert A. Heinlein photo

“You can't outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little sidebets about the outcome of life. either you wade in and risk everything you have to play the game or you don't play at all. and if u don't play u can't win.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Variant: You can't outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little side bets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in, risk everything you have to play the game or you don't play at all. And if you can't play, you can't win.
Source: Paradise

Barry Switzer photo

“They had no game plan for losing.... Because when you can't win a game, you need to run the clock, don't let it stop, don't throw passes incomplete... get the game over with, get on the bus and go home.”

Barry Switzer (1937) American football player and coach

Switzer on Oklahoma 79-10 defeat of North Texas in 2007. [Another BCS nightmare may be brewing, http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dufresne10sep10,0,4827957,full.column, LATimes.com, 2007-09-10, 2007-09-10, Chris, Dufresne]

Harlan Ellison photo

“You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the fucking game.”

Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) American writer

Interview with Gary K. Wolfe (28 July 1987), quoted in Harlan Ellison : The Edge of Forever (2002), by Ellen Weil and Gary K. Wolfe
Borrowing a common scientific joke expressing the laws of thermodynamics.

Jack Kerouac photo
Prem Rawat photo
Allen Ginsberg photo

“1. You can't win. 2. You can't break even. 3. You can't even get out of the game.”

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) American poet

Several publications attribute the quote to Ginsberg, probably the first one is The Coevolution Quarterly in 1975 [Google books https://books.google.it/books?id=MylJAQAAIAAJ&q=%22ginsberg%27s+theorem%22&dq=%22ginsberg%27s+theorem%22&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y], but there's is no evidence whatsoever that he ever pronounced it. A more detailed analysis can be found in this post https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/you_cant_win_you_cant_break_even/
Misattributed, Ginsberg's theorem

Laura Ingalls Wilder photo

“Never bet your money on another man's game.”

Source: Farmer Boy

Dr. Seuss photo

“I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Johan Cruyff photo

“If you can't win, make sure you don't lose.”

Johan Cruyff (1947–2016) Dutch association football player

In They said It: Johan Cruyff ( FIFA.com, 25 April 2014 http://www.fifa.com/news/y=2014/m=4/news=they-said-it-johan-cruyff-2323958.html).

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