Quotes About Circumstance

General Napoleon says that ability is of little account without opportunity. The opposite is also correct: Opportunity is of little account without ability.

But of course the universe does not conspire to put you in one place rather than another

Bad luck was a fact of life and one dealt with it or not. Good luck, on the other hand, was something one created.

Randomness and luck are related, but there is a useful distinction between the two. You can think of randomness as operating at the level of a system and luck operating at the level of the individual.

There, but for the grace of God, or the accident of birth, or the mystery of fate, go I.

by making clear what is true in any case, that those who land on top do not make it on their own but owe their good fortune to family circumstance and native gifts that are morally akin to the luck of the draw.

Luck can often mean simple taking advantage of a situation at the right moment, It is possible to make your luck by being always prepared.

Even those who die in terrorist attacks, and have thus had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, are described as "heroes", though given a choice most of them would no doubt have preferred to be somewhere else when the blow was struck.

A good managerial record is more a function of which boat you get into rather than how effectively you row"1 Warren Buffett

But a man's identity (or that of a community) is nothing more than an unbroken rehearsal of contingencies, each at the mercy of circumstance and each significant in proportion to its familiarity.

a man's identity (or that of a community) is nothing more than an unbroken rehearsal of contingencies, each at the mercy of circumstance and each significant in proportion to its familiarity.

but we often meet our fate on the road we take to avoid it.

In early February, an Obama administration lawyer friendly with Sally Yates remarked with some relish and considerable accuracy: "It certainly is an odd circumstance if you live your life without regard for being elected and then get elected—and quite an opportunity for your enemies.

in the larger Trump view, it was during the cold war that time and circumstance gave the United States its greatest global advantage. That was when America was great.

It certainly is an odd circumstance if you live your life without regard for being elected and then get elected—and quite an opportunity for your enemies.

Agarro o que passa e quando consigo: são as coisas que vem ter comigo e não eu que vou ter com elas. [sobre a triste circunstância de uma personagem que tem poucas oportunidades na vida]

The event isn't really the problem; it's our response to the event.

I have known it to be a sacred and beautiful place, hallowed by human endeavor and energies, crossed with love and the continual weave of human circumstance.

We have no choice of what color we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here

Whatever comes to you, you must engage it somehow. You receive it, you may alter the circumstance and let it go, you may interject something of your own into it, or you may knowingly let it pass. Whatever you do, there is no need to be apathetic toward life. Instead, full participation in all things is the surest way to happiness, vitality, success, and a deep knowledge of Tao.

There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.

Life is full of uncertainties, perhaps one day some unforeseen circumstance would bring her into his life once more

You can't simply blame another." It was lazy and absolved one party of responsibility in a circumstance that both'd had a chance to influence. "I say that as a woman who so long blamed Aegaeon for what I became. But I" — she slapped a hand over her chest — "made choices along the way.

It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or do in a circumstance unexpected by other people: it is reflection, it is meditation.