Lewis Thomas Quotes

Everyone gets lucky for some amount in their life. And the question is, are you alert enough to know you're being lucky or you're becoming lucky?

I think that we are all in the right place at the right time almost every day. It's the people who are prepared to be lucky who can take advantage of being there. How do these people position themselves to be lucky? It was Goethe who said, 'Anytime that you take the first step toward trying to achieve something in life, all manner of good things will mysteriously fall into your path to help speed you along your way.' Amen to that!

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.

I am deeply aware of the dimension of luck. It's so important to be prepared to receive it, but it is a major factor. There's no question.

Serendipity always rewards the prepared.

Everything that ever happened to me fell in my lap.

If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.

It is not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You should also have an open mind at the right time.

Look for your opportunities.

I always take my opportunities.

When opportunities come my way, I'm going to try to make the play.

Luck is something you find, or you go for it.

You seldom, if ever, get lucky sitting down.

Chance favours a prepared mind.

You have to create your own luck. You have to be aware of the opportunities around you and take advantage of them.

The nature of the work is to prepare for a good accident .

Opportunity often goes begging. Luck, never.

Luck, if there is such a thing, is either going to favor everyone equally or going to exhibit a preference for the prepared.

Often people think opportunity is a matter of luck. I believe opportunities are all around us. Some seize it. Others stand and let it pass by.

it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.

Otherwise, everything got better and better, just one surprise after another. And that's why I wrote the book about a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and just luck.

I believe in destiny. But I also believe that you can’t just sit back and let destiny happen. A lot of times, an opportunity might fall into your lap, but you have to be ready for that opportunity. You can’t sit there waiting on it. A lot of times you are going to have to get out there and make it happen.

Readiness for opportunity makes for success. Opportunity often comes by accident; readiness never does.

Things come to you in life when you're prepared for them, when you're ready for them.

You gotta try your luck at least once a day, because you could be going around lucky all day and not even know it.