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Quotations about chance
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
Convinced that character is all and circumstances nothing, [the Puritan] sees in the poverty of those who fall by the way, not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches, not an object of suspicion but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will.
R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926)
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
“The Sub-Treasury,” speech, Illinois House of Representatives (26 Dec 1839)
Chance generally favors the prudent.
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist
Pensées, # 147 (1838) [tr. Atwell]
Variant: "Chance generally favors the prudent man."
A consecutive series of great actions never is the result of chance and luck; it is always the product of planning and genius. … Is it because they are lucky that they have become great? No, but by being great, they have been able to master luck.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Remarks to Emanuel Las Cases (14 Nov 1816)
In The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection from His Written and Spoken Words, ch. 56 [ed. J. Herold (1955)]
The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable; for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
“Thoughts on Various Subjects” (1706)
(Source)
Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Mort (1987)
Man — who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) German playwright, philosopher, dramiturg, writer
(Attributed)
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899).
It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong — but that’s the way to bet.
Hugh E. Keough (1864-1912) Canadian-American sports journalist
(Attributed)
Variants:Also attributed to Damon Runyon, Franklin Pierce Adams, Grantland Rice, and Burns Mantle, all of of whom in turn credited Keough. The saying itself, a take-off on Ecclesiastes 9:11, has a number of antecedents: see here for more background.
- "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but the betting is best that way."
- "To be sure the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but it is ninety-nine times in a hundred."
