“I shall succeed!” he said to himself. So says the gambler; so says the great captain; but the three words that have been the salvation of some few, have been the ruin of many more.

[“Je réussirai!” Le mot du joueur, du grand capitaine, mot fataliste qui perd plus d’hommes qu’il n’en sauve.]

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) French novelist, playwright

Le Père Goriot, Part 1 (1835) [tr. Marriage]