Quotes About Fortune and Fate

Bad times have a scientific value . . . . We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is only one genuine misfortune: not to be born.

— Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator’s place and laugh at his own misfortune.

— Bert Williams

No man is content with his fortune, nor discontent with his intellect.

— Madame Antionette Deshoulires

Heaven goes by favor.  If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would be in.

— Mark Twain

Name the greatest of all the inventors.  Accident.

— Mark Twain

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird, and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Oil is seldom found where it is most needed, and seldom most needed where it is found.

— L. E. J. Brouwer

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

— Albert Einstein

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however the act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

— G. K. Chesterton

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.

— Kin Hubbard

With luck on your side you can do without brains.

— Giordano Bruno

As long as we are lucky we attribute it to our smartness; our bad luck we give the gods credit for.

— Josh Billings

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

— Stephen Butler Leacock

Luck is the residue of design.

— Branch Rickey

Depend upon the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit!

— R. E. Shay

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

— E. B. White

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.

— Solon

Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a very bad thing to become accustomed to good luck.

— Publilius Syrus

Fortune gives too much to many, but enough to none.

— Martial, first century A.D.

Luck never made a man wise.

— Seneca the Younger

May you live all the days of your life.

— Jonathan Swift

A flock of blessings light upon thy back.

— William Shakespeare

The harder you work, the luckier you get.

— Gary Player

No man can escape his fate.

— Sophocles