Luck

Luck

Luck or chance is fortune (whether bad or good) which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the prescriptive sense and the descriptive sense. In the prescriptive sense, luck is a supernatural and deterministic concept that there are forces (e.g. gods or spirits) which prescribe that certain events occur very much the way laws of physics will prescribe that certain events occur. It is the prescriptive sense that people mean when they say they "do not believe in luck". In the descriptive sense, luck is a word people give after the occurrence of events which they find to be fortuitous or unfortuitous, and maybe improbable.

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Famous quotes containing the word luck:

    ... the truth is hidden from us. Even if a mere piece of luck brings us straight to it, we shall have no grounded conviction of our success; there are so many similar objects, all claiming to be the real thing.
    Lucian (c. 120–c. 180)

    Why is it no one ever sent me yet
    One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
    Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
    One perfect rose.
    Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)

    It’s easy to forget what intelligence consists of: luck and speculation. Here and there a windfall, here and there a scoop.
    John le Carré (b. 1931)