Erich Maria Remarque on luck

We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.

A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends.

Why do they never tell us that you are just poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony⁠—. Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur1822–1895

I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

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 Goldwyn1882–1974