Ability is of little account without opportunity.

Luck is for those with nothing else. I wish you strength and courage.

All your strength must come from within, because no external source can provide it.

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.

There are, he assures her, no such things as curses. There is luck, maybe, bad or good. A slight inclination of each day towards success or failure. But no curses.

There was no protection, no quota system when it came to luck. It was like that moment in math when a child learns that the odds of heads or tails is always one-in-two, no matter how many times one has flipped the coin and gotten heads. Every flip, the odds are the same. Every day, you could be unlucky all over again.

Above all, he liked it that everything was one's own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared.

[His coat] emitted an odor of bus station so desolate that just standing next to him you could feel your luck changing for the worse.

Stop believing the false hope that 'if it’s meant to be” it will happen. If that were true, everyone would be content, wealthy, fit and have great relationships. You must plan, act, persevere, make better choices, know your value and never, ever accept less than you truly deserve. It's not up to chance, it's up to you.

I'm hardnosed about luck. I think it sucks. Yeah if you spend seven years looking for a job as a copywriter and then one day somebody gives you a job you can say 'Gee I was lucky I happened to go up there today.' But dammit I was going to go up there sooner or later in the next seventy years. ... If you're persistent in trying and doing and working you almost make your own fortune.