Quotes and passages on luck

Shallow people believe in luck,
believe in circumstance. Strong
people believe in cause and effect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

The world is like a reverse casino. In a casino, if you gamble long enough, you're certainly going to lose. But in the real world, where the only thing you're gambling is, say, your time or your embarrassment, then the more stuff you do, the more you give luck a chance to find you. Scott Adams

Good luck happens to people who work hard for it. Sometimes people just fall into the honey pot, but I've consistently strived to create whatever good fortune I can get in my life - and consistently strive just as hard not to screw it up once I have it! Patrick Duffy

Fishing is quite a good metaphor for life. You do your prep, you do your thinking, you put your bait out, and you wait, confident that you've done your groundwork. But a lot of life is luck. Jeremy Wade

The person who is intent on making the most of
their opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.

B. C. Forbes

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Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many,
many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my
one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.

Serena Williams

Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it
and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else:
Hard work - and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't.

Lucille Ball

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

Thomas Jefferson

You don't just luck into things. . . . You build step by step,
whether it's friendships or opportunities.

Barbara Bush

Life is full of luck, like getting dealt a good hand, or simply by being
in the right place at the right time. Some people get luck handed to
them, a second chance, a save. It can happen heroically, or by a simple
coincidence , but there are those who don’t get luck on a shiny platter,
who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.

Jessica Sorensen
The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden

I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the
ability to take advantage of it. . . . The people who can smile
at their breaks and grab their chances get on.

Samuel Goldwyn

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

Brandon Mull
Keys to the Demon Prison

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

Alice Hoffman
Local Girls

Sometimes not getting what you want is a brilliant stroke of luck.

Lorii Myers
Make It Happen

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
The Old Man and the Sea

There were a group of people before the Ascension known as
the Astalsi. They claimed that each person was born with a
certain finite amount of ill luck. And so, when an unfortunate
event happened, they thought themselves blessed—
thereafter, their lives could only get better.

Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn: The Final Empire

You don’t get lucky without preparation, and there’s no sense
in being prepared if you’re not open to the possibility
of a glorious accident.

Twyla Tharp
The Creative Habit

Nobody can be lucky all the time,
so when your luck deserts you in some fashion
don't think you've been abandoned in your prime,
but rather that you're saving up your ration.

Piet Hein

The phrase "it's better to be lucky than good" must be one of
the most ridiculous homilies ever uttered. In nearly any
competitive endeavor, you have to be damned good before
luck can be of any use to you at all.

Garry Kasparov
Deep Thinking

There are rules to luck, not everything is chance for the wise;
luck can be helped by skill.

Balthasar Gracian
The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Humankind accepts good fortune as their due, but when
bad occurs, they think it was aimed at them, done to them,
a hex, a curse, a punishment by their deity for some
transgression, as though their god were a petty
storekeeper, counting up the day's receipts.

Sheri S. Tepper
The Visitor