Quotations and Literature Forum

"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

"Good luck needs no explanation."
-- Shirley Temple Black

"Luck marches with those who give their very best"
-- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Luck comes to a man who put himself in the way of it.

--Louis L'amour, To The Far Blue Mountains

Good luck needs no explanation.
-Shirley Temple Black
1928-, American Film Child Star


There is no such thing as luck. It's a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes.
-Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
1803-1873, British Novelist, Poet


You don't just luck into things as much as you would like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it is friendships or opportunities.
-Barbara Bush
1925-, American First Lady, Wife of President George Bush


Luck relies on chance, labor on character.
-Richard Cobden
1804-1865, British Radical Politician


Luck is being ready for the chance.
-J. Frank Doble
1888-1964, American Author


Some folk want their luck buttered.
-Thomas Hardy
1840-1928, British Novelist, Poet

Not many more I'm running out.....

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.
-Henry David Thoreau


My luck is getting worse and worse. Last night, for instance, I was mugged by a quaker.
-Woody Allen


I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?
-Jean Cocteau


I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it... The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.
-Samuel Goldwyn


Luck affects everything. Let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it there will be a fish.
-Ovid


Care and diligence bring luck.
-Thomas Fuller


Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.
-Emily Dickinson


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

I wish you strength to bring you pride,
And a love to keep you clean,
And I wish you luck, come Lammastide,
At racing on the green.
- A E Housman, A Shropshire Lad

Housman was the Kennedy Professor of Latin at Trinity College, Cambridge. I've just returned today from a trip to Cambridge to visit my son who, by chance, is a student at Trinity College. Next year he will have a room in Whewell's Court, close to the rooms which Housman himself occupied. In the afternoon we visited the Wren Library to see Housman's autograph copy of A Shropshire Lad - it was open at 'On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble'. It's displayed next to the manuscripts of Winnie-the-Pooh by A A Milne.

Then we went to watch the racing, not on the green but on the Cam. It's the May Bumps this week, where the college eights chase the boat in front and try to out-row the boat behind. It's incredibly competitive, and he was indeed lucky at racing. His eight had to wait until the final race at 7.45pm. They bumped the boat in front before the half way point and rowed back to the boathouse festooned in greenery from the river bank as their winners' laurels. They now have the rowing club dinner and the May Ball to look forward to.

Henry