Wednesday, August 17, 2011

On Luck

"Luck is the residue of design."   -- Branch Rickey

"We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again," Obama told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa.  "But over the last six months we've had a run of bad luck."

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”  -- Robert Heinlein

Lets keep this party polite

Never get out of my sight
Stick with me baby, I'm the guy that you came in with
Luck be a lady tonight
                                         -- Frank Loesser

Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?  -- Harry Callahan








5 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Those of us who didn't vote for the Bumbler in Chief have had a run of bad luck for almost three years. The President has had a case of homesick chickens.

Night Writer said...

The Heinlein quote, from the notebooks of Lazarus Long, is one of my favorites and I've used it a few times lately. Here's another that seems to fit the times:

"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Night Writer said...

Oh, and I had to look this one up because I couldn't remember it in its entirety:

"Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck." - Joseph Heller

CousinDan 54915 said...

Obama is full of shit. Am I clear?

Mr. D said...

Yeah, Dan. I think I got it. :)