Quotes about luck
page 2

“The thoughts of others
Were light and fleeting,
Of lovers' meeting
Or luck or fame.
Mine were of trouble,
And mine were steady;
So I was ready
When trouble came.”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

Source: More Poems

Lovers, Light

“Mundies die awfully easily, don't they?"
"Isabelle, you know it's bad luck to talk about death in a sickroom.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Death, Bad luck

“You don't believe me?" Jace asked. "Fine. Go ahead. Kiss me right now."
Alec stared at him in horror.
"Exactly. Despite my staggering good lucks, you actually don't like me that way.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Way, Kiss

“Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her?”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea

“I've found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities. (Talon Karrde)”

Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire

Source: Heir to the Empire

People

“Life is not easy. We all have problems-even tragedies-to deal with, and luck has nothing to do with it. Bad luck is only the superstitious excuse for those who don't have the wit to deal with the problems of life.”

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

Source: In The Face of Danger

Life, Bad luck, Problem

“Some folks want their luck buttered.”

Thomas Hardy book The Mayor of Casterbridge

Source: The Mayor of Casterbridge

“There's no such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

“People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

People

“I was always lucky in my bad luck.”

Bohumil Hrabal (1914–1997) Czech bookwriter and writer

Bad luck

“If you can't think of what to write, tough luck; write anyway. If you can think of lots more when you've finished the three pages, don't write it; it'll be that much easier to get going next day.”

Philip Pullman (1946) English author

Thinking

“And have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess? I pity you. I thought you cleverer; for depend upon it, a lucky guess is never merely luck. There is always some talent in it.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Pleasure, Dependency

“The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love, Life, Truth, Game

“I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more
chances, Be more active, Show up more often.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Chance

“See Scott run,
Run Scott run.
See Scott die,
No such luck.”

David Lubar book Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

“Most young women do not welcome promiscuous advances. (Either that, or my luck's terrible.)”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Source: Memoirs Of A Mangy Lover

Women

“Luck was with me. I saw no spiders.
Luck was against me. I saw no specters.”

Gail Carson Levine The Two Princesses of Bamarre

Source: The Two Princesses of Bamarre

“Will: 'Singing the praises of our fair city? We treat you well here, don't we, James? I doubt I'd have that kind of luck in Shanghai. What do you call us there again?'
Jem: 'Yang guizi… foreign devils.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Singing

“I remembered the last time Annabeth and I had parted ways, when she'd given me a kiss for luck in Mount St. Helens. This time, all I got was the hat.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Way, Kiss, Time, Parting

“The trouble is people leave too much to luck. They get married and then trust to luck. They should be sure in the first place.”

John O'Hara (1905–1970) American journalist

People

“Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

People

“And Adam ruled, for he was the King. Until the day his will to be King deserted him. Then he died, food for a stronger. And the strongest was always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and luck and strength together. Among the rats.”

James Clavell book King Rat

Source: King Rat

Food

“Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination.”

Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) English novelist

Life, Imagination

“What is he doing here?" Curran growled.
"He's Roland's Warlord. He's here for me." He was here for the woman who had broken his master's blade.
"Tough luck. You're mine.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

“Seth trotted over to Kendra. Bringing good luck as usual
It was a weak pass okay”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Rise of the Evening Star

“We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.”

Rex Stout book The Rubber Band

Source: The Rubber Band

“Luck has a way of evaporating when you lean on it.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Keys to the Demon Prison

Way

“Good luck is just bad luck with its hair combed.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Page 457.
Everything's Eventual (2002), "Luckey Quarter"

Bad luck

“Luck equals (1) diversification plus (2) persistence.”

James Altucher (1968) American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur, and author

The Power of No: Because One Little Word Can Bring Health, Abundance, and Happiness

“Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Variant: But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.
Source: The Old Man and the Sea

“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

On his election to Académie Française (1955) Variant translation: Of course I believe in luck. How else does one explain the successes of one's enemies?

Success

“The best luck always happens to people who don't need it.”

Robert Penn Warren book All the King's Men

Source: All the King's Men

People

“With God on your side, what does luck matter?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

God

“In my youth, it was my good luck to have a few good teachers, men and women, who came into my head and lit a match.”

Yann Martel (1963) Canadian author best known for the book Life of Pi

Women, Men, Youth, Teachers

“… intentions, good or bad, are not enough. There's luck or fate or something else that takes over…”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent

Fate

“the best people have the rottenest luck”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

People

“You can have the other words — chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

"Sand Dabs, Five"
Winter Hours (1999)
Context: You can have the other words — chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace. I don't know what it is exactly, but I'll take it.

Chance

“Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure
I’d face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.”

A.E. Housman book A Shropshire Lad

No. 62, st. 3.
Source: A Shropshire Lad (1896)

World, Chance, Sun, Training

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)

Bad luck

“Finally, a human man saw me as intensely valuable. Just my luck he was happily married and thought I was a freak.”

Charlaine Harris Dead and Gone

Source: Dead and Gone

“There is that. I might have better luck telling him I’m in love with him. Jace thinks everyone’s in love with him anyway.”
“But I,” said Clary, “actually am.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Love, Thinking

“I left parts of myself everywhere,
The way absent-minded people leave
Gloves and umbrellas
Whose colors are sad from dispensing so much bad luck”

Charles Simic (1938) American poet

Bad luck, People, Sadness, Color

“I will ride my luck on occasion, but I like to pick the occasion.”

Rex Stout book Might as Well Be Dead

Source: Might as Well Be Dead

“Never depend on those luck moments – they are gifts – but instead always build your own back-up plan.”

Bear Grylls (1974) Chief Scout, adventurer, author

Source: Mud, Sweat and Tears

Dependency

“Ha!' said the tall man drily. 'He was in high luck. Rich old uncles who die are in shockingly short supply.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Source: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

“Luck, you see, brings bitter friends.”

John Steinbeck book The Pearl

Source: The Pearl (1947), Ch. III

“Who you get, and how it works out - there's so much luck involved, as well as the million branching consequences of your unconscious choice of mate, that no one and no amount of talking can untangle it if it turns out unhappily.”

Ian McEwan book Enduring Love

Page 82.
Source: Enduring Love (1997)

“Good music always defeats bad luck.”

Jack Vance (1916–2013) American mystery and speculative fiction writer

Bad luck, Music

“Why hasn't anyone killed him yet?”
“Dumb luck,” Wit said. “In that I’m lucky you’re all so dumb.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“It seems to me after a fellow has been mutinied against three or four times, there is something to it besides bad luck.”

Naomi Novik book Tongues of Serpents

Source: Tongues of Serpents

Bad luck, Time

“Men are like shoes. Some fit better than others. And sometimes you go out shopping and there's nothing you like. And then, as luck would have it, the next week you find two that are perfect, but you don't have the money to buy both.”

Janet Evanovich Plum Lovin'

Source: Plum Lovin'

Men, Money, Shoe, Perfection

“luck runs out but blessings never do!”

E. Lynn Harris Invisible Life

Source: Invisible Life

“Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“Luck never gives; it lends.”

Ann Brashares The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Source: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

“Luck is probability taken personally.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

Often repeated by Penn Jillette, who attributes this quote to Chip Denman.[citation needed]
Misattributed

Personality

“In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck - and, of course, courage.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Source: Fatherhood

Love, Courage

“Here's the thing about luck… you don't know if it's good or bad until you have some perspective.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Local Girls

“Time ticks by; we grow older. Before we know it, too much time has passed and we've missed the chance to have had people hurt us. To a younger me this sounded like luck; to an older me this sounded like a quiet tragedy.”

Douglas Coupland book Life After God

Source: Life After God (1994)

People, Chance, Time, Hurt

“I think you are wrong to want a heart. It makes most people unhappy. If you only knew it, you are in luck not to have a heart.”

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

People, Thinking, Heart, Heartbreaking

“I want to see your tailpipe fading off into the sunset."
Good luck, I thought. My tailpipe was somewhere on Route 1, along with my muffler.”

Janet Evanovich book One for the Money

Source: One for the Money

“It's a question of attitude. If you really work at something you can do it up to a point. If you really work at being happy you can do it up to a point. But anything more than that you can't. Anything more than that is luck.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

Happiness, Question

“Why is it no one sent me yet one perfect limousine, do you suppose? Ah no, it's always just my luck to get one perfect rose.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Perfection

“She shrugged. "You can be happy for someone else's good fortune, but that doesn't mean you forget your own bad luck.”

Jodi Picoult Plain Truth

Source: Plain Truth

Bad luck, Happiness, Forgetting

“Mom’s Israeli. Dad’s Brazilian. What can I say? I am Embassy Row personified. You really lucked out in the best friend department”

Ally Carter book All Fall Down

Source: All Fall Down

Moms

“Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery or simple bad luck.”

Joseph Heller book God Knows

Source: God Knows (1984)

Bad luck, Way

“With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he’ll never know.”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Life, Men, Thinking

“I have it on good authority that Victor's going to have car trouble. Also that Robert really likes Cheerios, so if you want some, you're out of luck. He doesn't seem like the sharing type.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Cars

“Trust your luck, Taran Wanderer. But don't forget to put out your nets!”

Lloyd Alexander book Taran Wanderer

Source: Taran Wanderer

Forgetting

“Maybe I should have cut him some slack. With his broken wing and lifetime of eating roadkill, he probably had a lot to be ungrateful about. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

“a good book
can make an almost
impossible
existence,
liveable

( from 'the luck of the word' )”

Charles Bukowski book Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Source: Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Books

“Good luck, boss. Don't let'em turn you into horse meat! (Blackjack)”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Horse

“I advise those who want to become writers to study veterinary medicine, which is easier. You don't want to be a writer unless you have no choice - and if you have no choice, good luck to you.”

Robin McKinley (1952) American fantasy writer

Study

“With luck, it might even snow for us.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

“It is not good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with Gods or the gods.”

John Steinbeck book The Pearl

Source: The Pearl

God

“We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck... But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness.”

Ellen Goodman (1941) American journalist and writer

Attributed

Love, People, Forgiveness, Parting

“A person's birthday should be a special day, a wonderful day, a day of pure celebration for the luck of being born!”

Elise Broach Masterpiece

Source: Masterpiece

Birthday, Personality

“A spider brings good luck before midnight and bad luck after.”

Joanne Harris book Chocolat

Source: Chocolat

Bad luck

“Just Leo’s luck. A super-hot immortal girl was waiting for him on Ogygia, but he couldn’t figure out how to wire a stupid chunk of rock into the three-thousand-year-old navigation device. Some problems even duct tape couldn’t solve.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Stupidity, Girl, Problem, Waiting

“Neither of us says the word love, not once. It would be tempting fate; it would be romance, bad luck.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Love, Fate, Bad luck

“Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Smile, Chance

“He’s very pretty. For a human.”
“He’s very broken,” said Magnus. “Like a lovely vase that someone has smashed. Only luck and skill can put it back together the way it was before.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Way

“She'd rather hoped for something simple, like a lined piece of notebook paper with MY EVIL PLAN written across the top, but no luck.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Hope, Evil

“I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Has been attributed to Stephen Leacock's "Literary Lapses" (1910), but the quote does not appear in the Project Gutenberg edition http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6340/6340.txt of this work. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. <br class="br">Variant: I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Motivational

“There are, he assures her, no such things as curses. There is luck, maybe, bad or good. A slight inclination of each day towards success or failure. But no curses.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Failure, Success

“That girl will rain destruction down on you and your ship. She is an albatross, Captain.

Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck, 'til some idiot killed it. (to Inara) Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Way, Girl, Reading

“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Time

“I wish you luck,' she said, kissing him on the cheek. He still had the most beautiful eyes of any boy she'd ever seen. But now her heart beat so much faster for someone else.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkdeath

Beauty, Boy, Kiss, Heart

“If I could, I'd write a huge encyclopedia just about the words luck and coincidence”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Motivational, Back To Work

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Lake Wobegon Days (1985), p. 337
Source: Lake Wobegon U.S.A.

Motivational, Deep, Success, Inspirational

“Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting”

Gregory David Roberts (1952) Australian writer and bank robber

Fate, Waiting

“Stones are just stones and rain is just rain and misfortune is just bad luck.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Bad luck

“So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck," says Peeta.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Way

“Shallow men believe in luck.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Worship

Worship
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Men

“How we are almost nothing. We think, in our youth, we are the centre of the universe, but we simply respond, go this way or that by accident, survive or improve by the luck of the draw, with little choice or determination on our part.”

Michael Ondaatje book Divisadero

Source: Divisadero

Youth, Way, Thinking, Universe

“Perhaps if they're not happy here they can go back to Iran and try their luck with ayatollahs, if they don't like the planning regime or my approach.”

Ken Livingstone (1945) Mayor of London between 2000 and 2008

Remarks at press conference, 21 March 2006, criticising the businessmen David and Simon Reuben who were obstructing land acquisition for the 2012 Olympics. The Reuben brothers were in fact born in India, to parents of an Iraqi Jewish heritage. Quoted in "Gaffe lands Livingstone back in trouble" by Jill Sherman in The Times (22 March 2006)

Happiness

“I can think of a few microorganisms, possibly the tubercle bacillus, the syphilis spirochete, the malarial parasite, and a few others, that have a selective advantage in their ability to infect human beings, but there is nothing to be gained, in an evolutionary sense, by the capacity to cause illness or death. Pathogenicity may be something of a disadvantage for most microbes, carrying lethal risks far more frightening to them than to us. The man who catches a meningococcus is in considerably less danger for his life, even without chemotherapy, than meningococci with the bad luck to catch a man.”

Lewis Thomas book The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher

"Germs"
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974)

Life, Death, Bad luck, Thinking