Plutarch Quotes

But if you know that you are a man too, and that even such are those that rule, learn this first of all: that all human affairs are a wheel which, as it turns, does not allow the same men always to be fortunate.

We are not saints, gods, spiritual human beings that we can sit and decide whether a film will do well or not. It is not in our hands.

Success is not forever and failure isn't fatal.

Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.

Frankly - and believe me, I say this without any pretense - when I see the road I've taken, I have to say that thanks to good luck, because without good luck one can do nothing, I've come out pretty well.

To be honest, I never really wrapped my mind around winning.

You don't know for sure why things happen, but you know, it did! It was my time to go on the show and I'm excited to see what my future holds.

Success and failure are equally surprising.

In football, like in life, there are always millimetres which can change things - the course of a goal or of a life.

I didn't know I was good enough to be a pro growing up.

I'm surprised I'm still living. I ain't really make the best of decisions in my life, but for some reason, it missed me. It's weird - that's what I always think, like, "Maybe something's going to happen."

On Elsewhere we fool ourselves into thinking we know what will be just because we know the amount of time we have left. We know this, but we never really know what will be. We never know what will happen.

In human life there is constant change of fortune; and it is unreasonable to expect an exemption from the common fate. Life itself decays, and all things are daily changing.

But between the plan and the operation, there is always an unknown. That unknown spells victory or defeat. ... Some people call it getting the breaks. I call it God. God has His part in everything. That's where prayer comes in.

And I suddenly think, as I look across the table at him, that these are the days as they will be. This is the future as we see it. The swerve and the static. The confidence and the doubt.

Look, it's very easy to sit here right now with some films in the bank that I like and think I have a shot and feel pretty cocky. But, you know, three years from now, I could very easily be saying, 'Paper or plastic?'

You are much more dependent on luck than you think. People say if you want to have a good relationship, you have to work at it. But you never hear it about anything you really like, about sailing or going to soccer games.

If there weren't luck involved, I would win every time.

Similarly, I think I'm lucky that I've never had a crisis about whether the only reason I'm successful is because I'm crazy hot. It's not something that crosses my mind.

If I should come out of this war alive, I will have more luck than brains.

A big success can be very confusing if it comes too early in your life. When you are young, you are more vulnerable to vanity. I was 36 when I wrote The Shadow of the Wind and the success of it was very gradual. If you have this kind of success straight off, I think there is a danger you can become an idiot, because you don't have a perspective. It hasn't changed me a lot. I fly first class now. But those things don't change you. If I am pretentious, I was before, I haven't changed. The only thing is, I am less anxious now.

Fortune soon tires of carrying anyone long on her shoulders.

Think doubt and fail. Think victory and succeed.

Revenge is the concern of those who are at some point or other beaten. I am not beaten, I told myself. No, not beaten. And victory is far more interesting to contemplate than revenge.