Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.

One knew in advance that life in New York would not be easy, but there were cheap rents in cold-water lofts without heat, and the excitement of being here made up for those hardships. I didn’t move to New York to make a fortune.

With all the… success that I’ve been lucky enough to get? That doesn’t happen unless the home life is solid.

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.

Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues?

The world is so unpredictable. Things happen suddenly, unexpectedly. We want to feel we are in control of our own existence. In some ways we are, in some ways we’re not. We are ruled by the forces of chance and coincidence.

Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear.

Bottom line is, I didn’t return to Apple to make a fortune. I’ve been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. There’s no way you could ever spend it all, and I don’t view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.

Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.

I have never believed much in luck, and my sense of humor has tended to walk on the dark side.

I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.

Richard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought I’d follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think I’ve been very lucky.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.

I’m very lucky. The public happens to like me. Maybe they like me because I use every opportunity to talk about injustice.

The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance.

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

If you win two games, one game or three games, you can still say it’s luck. But when you win a championship over 18 games, it’s not luck.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

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

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

I was extremely lucky that I had two great wives. It sounds a bit funny to say that, but it’s absolutely true.

I got a chain letter by fax. It’s very simple. You just fax a dollar bill to everybody on the list.

I’ve been fortunate. I don’t pick scripts. Scripts pick me.

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

I’ve been lucky. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.

I don’t have any terrific self-esteem issues but I do sometimes realise I’ve been too lucky and that I’m over-praised. It makes me nervous. I have this sense of being overrated.

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

I didn’t die young. So I am very lucky. There are other artists and people that didn’t survive certain things… people can imagine that I did the most dangerous, and I did the worst… for many reasons, I shouldn’t be here.

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

For some reason, I have better luck when I work with women. I guess I have a good sense of sisterhood.

Fortune befriends the bold.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

I feel very lucky to make a living from my imagination; I’m very grateful for that. I like that what I do is create. I’m feeling very lucky to have had the career I had. It’s gone much longer and bigger than I ever thought it would be.

What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

I’ve had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work.

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

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.

God not only plays dice, but also sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.

I’ve had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I’ve often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

They might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.

Most of the time, I’m not even working; I’m just helping people, because I feel that I am too lucky.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

Luck is believing you’re lucky.

Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.

I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.

Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.

Peace begins with a smile.

First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her – for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys.