Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

Some days you're the kid with the stick, some days you're the pinata.

I'll wager there isn't a human being on earth who doesn't believe in luck, however rational they pretend to be in public life. In reality, most of human life is luck - and, of course, its darker, more prevalent opposite. One only has to live long enough to experience both.

It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune-the ally of patient Time-that holds an even and scrupulous balance.

Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.

Men may second fortune, but they cannot thwart her.

Who then may trust the dice, at Fortune's throw?

Truly, that reason upon which we plume ourselves, though it may answer for little things, yet for great decisions is hardly surer than a toss up.

Woe to him who would ascribe something like reason to Chance, and make a religion of surrendering to it.

How slight a chance may raise or sink a soul!

For fate may hang on any moment and at any moment be changed.

Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.

The future is inevitable and precise, but it may not occur. God lurks in the gaps.

Luck, mere luck may make even madness wisdom.

Most things may never happen: this one will.

Hazard has conditioned us to live in hazard. All our pleasures are dependent on it. Even though I arrange for a pleasure, and look forward to it, my eventual enjoyment of it is still a matter of hazard. Wherever time passes, there is hazard.

Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise.

You never know . . . that's what makes life interesting.

It's funny, but... you're sort of a moving target for fortune, and you never know when it will befall you.

No man can ever be secure until he has been forsaken by Fortune.

Men plan. Fate Laughs. Guis Alera, First Lord

Everybody believes in chance.

When we think about the present, we veer wildly between the belief in chance and the evidence in favour of determinism. When we think about the past, however, it seems obvious that everything happened in the way that it was intended.

Anything can happen, but it usually doesn't.

We can never tell what is in store for us.

Tho' there be no such Thing as Chance in the World; our Ignorance of the real Ccause of any Event has the same Influence on the Understanding, and begets a like Species of Belief or Opinion.